


The Case Involving The Very Prattish Arthur Pendragon

by Fletcher



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Break Up, Case Fic, Love/Hate, M/M, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-06-25
Packaged: 2017-12-10 16:17:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/788009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fletcher/pseuds/Fletcher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin is a private detective who uses his magic to solve crimes. But lately his cases haven’t been very exciting. Until one day, he gets a visit from his old friend Morgana who has a very interesting case for him. Unfortunately, it involves his ex-husband Arthur Pendragon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Merlin had never thought that a Chihuahua could have so many enemies, but it seemed that there were at least three people trying to kill Mr. Sugar. Of course, most Chihuahua’s weren’t worth millions. But still, Merlin was convinced that there was something particularly evil about this dog. If only it was his former owner, Mrs. Brady, who was getting vicious death threats. But no, she died of a boring heart attack and the only interesting thing she ever did was leave her fortune to her dog instead of her three money hungry nephews.

Now, Merlin just had to figure out which nephew was the potential dog killer and another case was closed. Hopefully his next case would actually involve a human victim, and not just another boring affair or some missing money and absolutely no dogs.

Merlin was looking forward to solving an actual mystery. It had been a long time since he had an actual interesting case and not just a way to pay the bills. He was the only magical detective in the country, you would think he would be overwhelmed with offers. Merlin promised himself that his next job would involve at least one international thief. That was the moment when there was a knock on the door.

“You can come in if you have a very peculiar problem and a sparkling personality,” Merlin shouted from his very comfortable couch.

“Well, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Vogue called me very sparkly and my fashion sense often peculiar. Hello, little brother.”

“Morgana!” Merlin made an effort to close his mouth. “What the fuck are you doing here? And I am _not_ your little brother.”

“Manners, darling, I am a very important person and you will always be my little brother,” she said, while actually ruffling his hair.

“I am touched by your very rare token of affection. But you didn’t actually answer my question. What are you doing in the office of a magical detective?” Merlin insisted.

“Darling, putting your name on the door doesn’t make this an office. It’s a flat. And I am currently standing in it, because I want to acquire your services. I have a very urgent case,” she told him.

At the mention of a case, Merlin’s face started brightening. “Is there an international thief active at your company? Corporate espionage in the fashion world? Has one of your models been killed?” he asked, brimming with excitement.

“Sadly, all my models are alive and bitching, and I don’t think anyone is stupid enough to steal from me. I would actually skin them alive. No, the case isn’t about me, it’s about Arthur,” she said.

Now Merlin’s smile was completely gone. “I’m sorry Morgana, but I don’t accept affairs anymore. But tell your brother to check his wife’s phone, I’m sure she hasn’t deleted anything too incriminating.”

“I can tell you have been very busy, because Arthur has actually divorced Sophia three months ago. In fact, she’s currently living with Arthur’s former lawyer so I don’t think he’s very interested in reading her texts.” She looked at his couch and asked apprehensively, “May I sit down on this slightly creepy looking couch?”

“It would be an honour to have Vogue’s most beautiful woman of the year sitting on my slightly creepy looking couch,” Merlin answered.

She smiled at him, one of her genuine smiles that she reserved for the few people she actually liked.

“I know that things between Arthur and you are … complicated. But this really is important, Merlin, otherwise I wouldn’t be here reminding you of my brother’s existence. You see, it started last month. Every now and then, Arthur gets these emails basically shouting “you bastard, I hate you” and so on. But well, you don’t become the richest man in the country without making a few enemies, so normally Gwen doesn’t even bother telling Arthur. But last month, there was this truly vicious mail, very articulately telling Arthur how he would be chopped into pieced for his crimes.”

Morgana’s face looked troubled.

“Then there was an accident with Arthur’s car, nothing serious in the end, just a little bump. Next, there was a giant rock thrown through Arthur’s office window and as you know, his office is on the 15th floor. Then, poor Lance had food poisoning after eating some chocolates meant for Arthur. And so on, all these seemingly little things but I’m afraid they are building up to something bigger. I’m also afraid that whoever is doing these things, has magic. Even Arthur with all his power and billions can’t defend himself against some crazy wizard with a vengeance complex.”

“Hmm, I have to be honest, Morgana,” Merlin said cautiously. “That actually does sound a bit suspicious. Sabotaging his car is one thing, but apparently having access to his home is something different. Plus, throwing a rock through a 15th floor window sounds pretty magical to me.”

Merlin noticed that Morgana was silently relieved that Merlin actually believed her story and suspected that was because Arthur probably didn’t. Arthur had never liked hearing about magic.

“So, you’ll take the case,” she said, looking very pleased with herself. “Excellent, you will of course be royally rewarded and I’ll make sure you’ll be able to afford a very nice looking and non-creepy living room.”

“Pfft, I actually like this living room, it fits me and my interesting personality and you know I don’t care about the money. It’s just been a long time since I had an actual magical mystery.”

“Well, whatever your reasons are for accepting, I think it’s important that you start as soon as possible. That’s why I’m giving you this invitation to the annual Pendragon Christmas party.” She handed him a very fancy looking envelope with his name on it. “If our stalker is someone Arthur even remotely knows, he or she will probably be there.”

“You already had Gwen print my invitation. Confident as always that you’ll get what you want,” he pointed out. 

She smirked, “I usually do, darling. Except when it comes to you. Because if I had my way, I wouldn’t need a case to convince you to go to this party.”

“Morgana, please don’t start,” Merlin pleaded. “I promise you that we’ll have coffee next month and you can lecture me on everything I’m doing wrong in my life. But right now I have to focus on surviving attending a party filled with rich twats who hate me.”

“They don’t all hate you, Merlin,” she assured him. “Some of them haven’t met you, but I’m sure when they do, you will tell them all how awful they are for having a Swiss bank account. Besides, I will be there with my sparkling personality and so will Gwen, Lancelot, Elena and Gwaine who _still_ wants to fuck you.”

“Thank you for your kind words. And Gwaine doesn’t _still_ want to fuck me. We already took care of that when we were seventeen” Merlin replied.

“Yes, how could I possibly forget. I thought Arthur was going to stab him with his fork when he found out. Luckily, the only lasting damage was done to our old kitchen.” Morgana stood up and extended her hand. “Well, I will see you tomorrow and please remember that there is a dressing code, so I would appreciate you not wearing this horribly mismatched outfit.”

In spite of Morgana’s very unwelcome fashion advice, Merlin decided to shake her hand anyway and said, “I shall wear my best clothes, my lady,” and he made an exaggerated bow.

She gave him a hug and said, “God, Merlin, I miss you so much. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow, I promise.”

*

Perhaps, there was a grain of truth in what Morgana said, and a blue shirt combined with a red scarf did not result in the perfect outfit for a fancy Christmas party.

The problem was that Merlin really didn’t have a decent outfit for a party held at an actual castle and he also didn’t really have the money to buy one, so that left him with a few hours to find out who was trying to kill Mr. Sugar before the shops closed. Fortunately, Mr. Sugar had a very stupid archenemy who touched one of the letters with his middle finger and Merlin’s magic was able to trace him. So, he decided to pay a visit to Mr. Sugar’s estate lawyer to tell him that the culprit was in fact the oldest nephew and to collect his well-deserved money.

*

The next day, Merlin started preparing his brand new case by doing something he’d managed to avoid for years: googling Arthur Pendragon. Merlin still found it hard to believe that he knew someone with his own Wiki page. Well, several people actually, because Morgana and Gwaine had one too. But Arthur’s was clearly written by someone with a huge crush on him. Most wiki pages don’t start with an entire paragraph dedicated to the luscious blonde hair, the well developed muscles and the amazing smile of their subject. Merlin would never admit it to anyone, but when he was fourteen he wrote a very similar looking entry in his diary. He decided to skip the section about Arthur’s childhood and his teenage years, because there was no new information to be found there. He scrolled really quickly over the section devoted to him, and then started reading everything there was to know about Arthur’s ex-wives. Even though, Morgana had already told him that Sophia had completely moved on, he didn’t want to exclude the scenario of an ex-wife looking for revenge. And it would be logical to start with his ex-wives before attempting to check out all of Arthur’s girlfriends, boyfriends and one night stands. Those would keep Merlin occupied for weeks.

His first ex-wife was Vivian, and she was currently dating a duke. They looked happy in their paparazzi pictures, and she was pregnant with their first child so Merlin didn’t think it was very likely that she was spending her free time stalking her ex-husband.

His second ex-wife was Mithian and Merlin knew that she didn’t have anything to do with this. She was currently living in Alaska doing scientific research, and she was actually nice.

Finally, there was Sophia. Morgana was right that she was living with Tristan, Arthur’s former lawyer. Reading more details about their divorce, left Merlin thinking that there wasn’t really any bad blood between them.

It seemed like Arthur was on good terms with all his ex-wives, Merlin was starting to wonder if there was something really wrong with him.

He decided to make a list of Arthur’s most prominent girlfriends and boyfriends, he could ask Morgana for more information about the less prominent ones. After the party he could ask Gwen about any business rivalries going rogue, no need to be a Grinch tomorrow. But deep down, Merlin was convinced that this case was personal and not business related at all.

Another question was if Arthur’s stalker really had magic. It was possible that they had hired a wizard to do their dirty work. If that was the case, that would make this case even more complicated. Well, it seemed like Merlin finally had a real mystery to solve.

His biggest issue remained that even with Morgana and potentially Gwen as informants, he really would have to talk with Arthur at some point. Merlin was secretly hoping that Arthur’s stalker would make a move tonight so that wouldn’t be necessary.

*****

One of the reasons that Merlin was convinced that Arthur’s stalker had magic, was that it really was impossible to enter the Pendragon Castle without an invitation. You had to pass about ten security camera’s, fifteen very scary looking security agents who could tackle you at any moment on the very long driveway, plus there was the matter of the very big gate. Merlin really didn’t see anyone getting in without magic. If only there was a wiki page about evil wizards he could check out.

Once he finally managed to get inside the castle, he could see that Morgana had gone all out like usual. The decorations were gorgeous and had probably cost enough to support a small country.  The guests were numerous and all very fancy. Like usual, Merlin felt really out of place in this world. Fortunately, he spotted a friendly face.

“Gwen, how wonderful to see you!,” he exclaimed.

“Merlin,” Gwen said brightly, “it’s so great to see you!”

She looked at him more closely and said, “You are so skinny, are you eating enough?” She gave him a quick hug which felt more like a check-up on his health.

Merlin shrugged his shoulders. “Gwen, honestly I’m fine. And I eat. A lot. Not as much as when you were still feeding me, but then again you were trying to turn me into a whale.”

“You know me, I worry. It’s part of the job description. But how are you and Will doing? Is the business doing okay, and what about your love life?” she pressed.

“Um, the detective agency is doing great. Couldn’t be better, there really is a hole in the market for a magical detective. Will is fine and so is my love life, lots of loving for this boy.”

“Hmm, Merlin, I believe that you’re a great detective but I hope you do realize that you’re a terrible liar.”

Merlin felt like he was being admonished by his mother, but Gwen was the closest thing he had to a mother.

“Now, I won’t keep you any longer. I’m sure a young man like you has lots of socializing to do and I’m so pleased that you decided to come. Hopefully, the blackmail material Morgana has on you isn’t too incriminating. She does have a vicious streak.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek and left hem unattended between the sharks.

“Oh, and watch out for Gwaine, that boy is trouble.” Merlin rolled his eyes, she just could not resist departing without giving him some advice.

Merlin took a glass of champagne, it was the best drink he had in ages and without a doubt the most expensive. If he wasn’t going to have any fun, he could at least enjoy the free bar. But, he reminded himself that he wasn’t here to get drunk like he usually did at the Pendragon Christmas party. This was a job and Merlin was going to bloody excel at it. Part of him reveled in the fact of proving to Arthur that being a magical detective was a sensible career choice and not some ‘weird hobby’. What better way of proving it, than saving him from a madman.

*

Merlin failed to spot Morgana anywhere and he spent the next hour observing the guests and their interactions with Arthur. Some he even recognized from the newspapers but none of them registered as dangerous suspects. Some of Arthur’s business rivals were present, some of the guests were ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends, not to mention the enormous amount of friends Arthur seemed to possess. Merlin couldn’t spot any animosity between Arthur and any of them. If only someone was wearing leather, he could spot the villain. He felt a bit creepy himself, spying on Arthur. But his magic worked best if he was physically close to his target and with every handshake, his magic told him the same thing: not an axe murderer. Even his magic could feel the love in the room.

Actually, it was a bit frightening how loved Arthur really was. Maybe, Arthur wasn’t the prat in their relationship after all. Or perhaps this place was making him nostalgic. Well, that wasn’t anything that five minutes actually talking with Arthur couldn’t fix. They did tend to bring out the worst in each other.

He quickly retreated when Arthur started looking in his direction and bumped right into a warm body, which turned out to belong to Gwaine.

“Merlin, sweetheart, what are you doing here?,” Gwaine inquired with great enthusiasm.  

“Hi, Gwaine. I’m actually on an undercover mission to find out where the nouveau riche is spending their holiday next year,” Merlin said, conspiratorially.

“Oh, I love it when you talk French to me. Also, I am delighted to inform you that my next destination is the Camelot Hotel, care to join me?,” Gwaine asked as he raised his eyebrows suggestively.

“You are incorrigible, Gwaine, seriously. Besides, I don’t think I’m part of your target audience any longer. There are a lot of pretty 21-year-olds here for you to despoil.”

“Ah, but market research in my particular field shows that experience is very important. If you’re still willing to learn, of course.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’ve already passed the whole ‘rich twat’ phase,” Merlin quipped.

“Ouch, straight to the heart. You haven’t changed at all, dear Merlin. Still as charming as always.” Gwaine reached into his pocket and gave Merlin his card.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I see Lady Alice is a bit lonely over there. Do call me, I miss you, we all do. Even Arthur.”

“He really doesn’t,” Merlin snorted.

“Well, maybe you should stop bumping into gorgeous men like myself, so you can find out. In fact, he’s coming over here right now. I see alarm bells still go off when I get in close proximity of you. Good luck,” Gwaine teased and he left Merlin with his champagne glass which he gratefully emptied immediately. He could definitely use some alcohol for this particular confrontation.


	2. Chapter 2

“Merlin, I'm assuming Morgana is the reason for your presence,” Arthur inquired.

“Yes, she informed me about the excellent champagne you would be serving tonight and after sampling, I can assure you that she wasn’t exaggerating.”

“Careful, Merlin, remember that you are a lightweight. We wouldn’t want you to embarrass yourself in front of these very important guests,” Arthur replied coldly.

“Of course not. That would be terrible. But don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on staying much longer, Gwaine just proposed some sleeping arrangements,” Merlin challenged him.

Arthur’s face turned even colder. “I’m sure he did. Before you’re off, I just wanted to make sure that Morgana hasn’t bothered you with her tales about my crazy stalker. I wouldn’t want to waste your time, I understand how busy a magical detective must be. The caseload must be overwhelming.”

“It really is,” Merlin nearly spitted out. “But there is such a thing as loyalty, and if an old friend asks for my help, I can’t say no.”

“Loyalty,” Arthur scoffed. “That’s quite ironic coming from a man who specializes in giving up and walking away when things get a bit too difficult. Hopefully, my imaginary stalker isn’t too determined.”

“You are such an unbelievable prat, Arthur,” Merlin said, trying rather desperately to remain calm.

“Aww, Merlin, I’m starting to get flashbacks from our happy marriage,” Arthur said, twisting the knife even further.

Before Merlin could find a champagne glass to throw in Arthur’s face and cause yet another scene at the Pendragon Christmas party, they were joined by two of the other guests, an older couple.

“Arthur, I’m glad to see you, this is such a lovely party. Your sister has done a marvellous job.”

“I’ll be sure not to tell her, Mrs. Tyler. There is no need to overinflate Morgana’s ego even more,” Arthur said, slipping right back into his role of gracious host.

“Oh, Arthur, you’re so naughty,” she said affectionately. Then she looked at Merlin and said apologetically, “I’m sorry, I don’t believe we’ve met before.”

“Pardon me, Mr. and Mrs. Tyler, how impolite of me. This is Merlin Pendragon, my ex-husband,” Arthur explained, with a tight smile on his face.

“Nice to meet you both,” Merlin politely said. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to go talk to someone.”

“Of course,” Mrs. Tyler replied.

Before Merlin could make an actual gracious exit, Arthur grabbed his arm.

“If you don’t mind, Merlin, there is something I need to discuss with you. Could you join me in my office?” Arthur asked with a tone that implied that it wasn’t an actual question.

“Fine,” Merlin agreed, not really seeing any other option than agreeing in front of the Tyler’s.

They walked through the ballroom together, Arthur still holding onto Merlin’s arm, as if he was afraid Merlin would make a run for it at any moment. He was probably right.

Arthur’s office was on the second floor, so they had to take the massive stairs, until they finally reached their destination.

“Ok, what is so important that you felt the need to drag me here?” Merlin started.

“I wanted to make sure that you don’t follow up on this case Morgana has given you,” Arthur said.  “I really don’t need rumours flying around that I’m being stalked by some psycho. Morgana is just being ridiculously overprotective.”

“Well, according to Morgana, they’ve already poisoned Lance..”

“That was just some random food poisoning,” Arthur interrupted.

“It can’t all just be one huge coincidence. There is something going on here. Morgana is not stupid...”

“Neither am I,” Arthur interrupted again.

“Would you please let me finish talking!” Merlin shouted.

Arthur actually laughed. “And that’s why I wanted to go to my office. You can’t help but shout when you’re near me.”

“Then stop saying things that make me want to shout at you!”

“Everything I say makes you want to shout at me,” Arthur mocked.

“Fine, I am really leaving now, I have an investigation to run. I look forward to your gratitude when I catch your nemesis.”

“Well, I am not buying you another castle, that’s for sure.”

“I never wanted a bloody castle in the first place.” Merlin already had the door handle in his hand when he looked back at Arthur and said, “By the way, I do have to come back to talk to Lance and Gwen about your ‘accidents.’ I hope you don’t mind, you’ll probably be working anyway.”

“Like I said, it’s your castle, investigate away,” Arthur said. “If you and Morgana really are determined to carry this through, there is no one on earth with the possibility to stop you. In fact, why don’t we make this a challenge, if you can find my ‘stalker’, I’ll buy you anything you want.”

“I don’t want your money, Arthur,” Merlin hissed.

“I know, but don’t you want to buy your flat? I mean, I’m sure the money is just flowing in, but poor Will must be struggling to pay the rent each month. It surprises me that he isn’t here tonight, free alcohol usually lures him in.”

“Will is spending Christmas with his aunt, if you must know,” Merlin told him. “And our landlord adores us for our early payments. But in the spirit of Christmas, I will accept your challenge. When I catch your stalker, I want you to admit that you’re a prat and that I was right.”

“Seriously, Merlin, I offer to buy you anything you want and that’s what you propose. We’re not twelve anymore,” Arthur scoffed.

“There is nothing you hate more than admitting you’re wrong, I can’t wait to hear you say it.”

“Is that so? Well, then let me give you a preview, it was a mistake to marry you, Merlin,” Arthur said cruelly.

Merlin had to control his magic before he could reply. “Fuck you, Arthur. Oh, and never call me a Pendragon again. I’m going back to Emrys.”

“See you later, Emrys. I hope your night was enjoyable.”

“Oh, it will be, once I find Gwaine!” Merlin shouted and he slammed the door shut.

Merlin was so angry when he stormed down the stairs, that he actually was considering sleeping with Gwaine. But he refused to use Gwaine to hurt Arthur, even if Gwaine had no problem with being used. He would just steal a couple of champagne bottles, go home and get drunk. That sounded like a brilliant plan.

*

The plan sounded a bit less brilliant in the morning when Merlin woke up with an enormous headache. But on the bright side, he hadn’t used his magic to kill Arthur and he hadn’t slept with Gwaine, so small steps. Will would be home in a couple of hours, so he would have someone to vent to. Until then, he was planning to occupy himself with some further online research on Arthur.

He wasn’t really inclined on saving his life right now, but he promised Morgana and he wanted to win that stupid challenge. Even though, buying this flat would be really handy, their landlord wasn’t really that fond of them. Will had a habit of jumping from job to job, and when he wasn’t jumping, he worked as Merlin’s assistant, so basically Merlin paid the rent himself. The struggles of not being a Pendragon anymore.

He really did have to finally sort out that name situation. The only reason he hadn’t changed his name back to Emrys, was that he hated that name so much, even more than he hated using Arthur’s. He grew up without his parents, so he wasn’t interested in using their name either. And as much as he loved Gaius, Monmouth was a terrible name for a detective.

He could always marry again and take his husband’s name. Preferably someone without a posh name, he could be Merlin Jones, magical detective. Instead of doing his research, Merlin spent the next few hours on various dating sites, looking for a partner with the ideal surname. He wouldn’t change his name on the door for just anyone.

Of course, all Will saw was that Merlin was looking for his ‘Knight in Shining Armour’.

“What the fuck are you doing, Merlin. Can’t you just watch regular gay porn like everyone else, why does it have to be about knights?”

“It’s not a porn site, it’s a dating site. And I’m not really looking, just searching for an appropriate new surname,” Merlin admitted.

“Sure, mate, I believe you. Anything else you need to confess? Like going to the Pendragon Christmas party,” Will said all-knowingly.

“How could you possibly know that?” Merlin asked, shocked at Will’s sudden deduction skills.

“Because I’m a brilliant sidekick, and the invitation is still on the table, so that was a tiny clue. It explains why you look so miserable, but why on earth did you go there?”

“Morgana has a case for me, and it involves Arthur. Actually, Arthur is the case, she thinks someone is trying to kill Arthur,” Merlin told him.

“Understandable,” Will added.

“Exactly, but for some reason Morgana is still quite fond of him, so she prefers him alive. I spent last night trying to spot someone on the verge of killing Arthur. Unfortunately, the only candidate was me.”

“How much furniture was ruined during this fight?” Will asked curiously.

“Surprisingly, nothing,” Merlin informed him. “I did steal some champagne bottles, but I think that was included with the invitation.”

“I’m sure you’ve drunk them all, you lush. Right, this investigation already sounds like a giant mess, just the way I like it. I’ll throw my clothes back in my closet and then we can start investigating. It’s good to be home, Auntie Watson is a nice woman, but it’s so dull without you there to entertain me,” Will sighed.

“I am glad my life is a constant source of entertainment for you.”

“So, am I. Unlike most of my tv shows, you get better each series.”

*

Merlin and Will started their investigation the same way they always did, with Will shouting out ridiculous theories at Merlin and Merlin destroying them all. It had proven to be an useful method in the past, some of the nonsense Will shouted had made a light bulb go off in Merlin’s head.

But not today, because Will was mainly spouting Arthur-related puns which made Merlin howl with laughter.

“Seriously, mate, I think you’re still a bit drunk. You never laugh this much at my admittedly hilarious jokes.”

“Don’t get your hopes up about a career as a stand-up comedian. I’m just in the mood to piss off Arthur,” Merlin sulked.

“Dear Merlin, I hate Arthur, you don’t,” Will chided.

“Of course, I hate Arthur,’ Merlin protested. “I want to turn him into a donkey and then set him free with his kind.”

“You’ve been in love with the guy since you were fifteen. Or do I have to remind you of your vomit-inducing puppy love story. How you had your first kiss in the pond after Arthur heroically jumped in, because you couldn’t swim?”

Will was too busy fake fluttering his eyelashes to avoid the pillow Merlin hit him with.

“Stop it, Will! And you’re the one who threw me in the pond in the first place, so this is all your fault. You knew I couldn’t swim,” Merlin accused him.

“I knew that, Pendragon didn’t. He just wanted his Mr. Darcy moment to impress you and it seems like he succeeded since you were acting like a regular Austen character. Thank you, Arthur, you’re so brave, please let me kiss you to show my eternal gratitude!” Will started making fake kissing noises.

“Ok, it’s clear that you’re the fifteen-year-old here, not me. By the way, your lack of memory is frightening. That is not how it happened at all. I’m not afraid to call Gwaine to confirm that,” Merlin said.

“Oh my god, Gwaine was there and he gave you his number!” Will started laughing uncontrollably. “That is proper awesome. That vein in Arthur’s forehead must have started showing again. But seriously Merlin, please promise me that during this investigation you won’t sleep with Gwaine or Arthur.”

“What could possibly possess me to sleep with Arthur? I’m not that desperate,” Merlin scoffed.

“Sure, you’re not. But just to be safe, let’s check out that dating site again and find someone who can satisfy those special sexual needs you have. You’re not that ugly, I’m sure we’ll find someone who is willing.”

“Thanks, Will. Very good for my confidence. Why don’t we go to a gay bar, you’re surprisingly popular there,” Merlin suggested.

“Let’s do this,” Will said while jumping up and dragging Merlin upright.

“You’re insane,” Merlin reminded him.

“That’s why you love me so much, come on, it’s time to forget all about your past and look at the future!”

*

Of course, Will was the one who ended up having sex after visiting a gay bar and not Merlin. It was easier to find a straight woman in a gay bar who wanted to sleep with Will than it was to find a man who wanted to sleep with Merlin. Alright, he was a bit picky but that was necessary.

Besides, Merlin really had no time for dating right now, he was supposed to run an investigation. The minute Will came back from wherever he was, they would start investigating. This case was going to be solved in record time. But first, breakfast.

Merlin was still enjoying his breakfast when Will came stumbling through the door.

“Best night ever! We are so going back tonight,” Will said, even though he looked exhausted.

“We are so not. Morgana is paying me to solve this case, not sponsoring your sex life,” Merlin warned him.

“Morgana understands that it’s necessary to relax while working such a difficult case,” Will said and proceeded to stuff a biscuit in his mouth.

“What work? You haven’t done anything, which reminds me that I need you to get some information about Arthur’s main business rivals. I just want to make sure that this is not about the company. I’ll go talk with Gwen and Lancelot,” Merlin decided.

“No problem, I know what to do. But it surprises me that you’re going back to the castle already. I was sure you’d try to stay away as long as possible.”

“I can’t. I could meet up with Gwen and Lance elsewhere but I really have to check out the place and have a talk with the guards.”

“You’re the magical detective, I’m only your loyal assistant.”

“I prefer companion,” Merlin grinned.

“So do I,” Will grinned back.

*

Before Merlin left to visit the castle again, he made sure to call Gwen and get clearance. She seemed surprised to hear from him again so soon. Which was understandable when he had spent so many years avoiding the people living in the castle and now he was suddenly making social calls.

Before he entered the castle, he visited the garden so he could see if Kilgharrah was still there. Not that Merlin thought that Arthur would ever remove his tree, but it was nice to see it again. It was a reminder of the good times he had here, this place really did make him nostalgic.

“Merlin, I thought I could find you here,” Gwen announced.

“I was just visiting Kilgharrah.”

“Don’t worry, she is still very much alive, even if she drives the gardener mental.”

“That’s my girl,” Merlin laughed.

“So tell me, what brings you here?” Gwen asked.

“I’m actually working on a case, Morgana hired me. That’s the real reason she invited me to the Christmas party, she believes that someone is trying to kill Arthur.”

“What?” Gwen looked visibly concerned, shifting right back in overprotective mode. “Who would want to kill Arthur, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well, I have no leads at the moment, but I’m doing some research on Arthur’s business relations and I was hoping you could help me with that.”

“Of course, I’ll help you. Wait, is this related to that scary letter I showed Morgana a while ago?”

“Yes, it is. It’s just one of the things that is making Morgana suspicious. I told Arthur last night, but of course he doesn’t believe me,” Merlin said, not able to hide his frustration.

“I’m sure he is seriously thinking about it, he just hates to admit that Morgana is right. And you know how he feels about your detective business,” Gwen tried to reassure him.

“I’m well aware  of Arthur’s many feelings, but at the moment I’m only interested in keeping him alive. I need to pay my rent,” Merlin reminded her.

“Well, let’s earn that rent and have a chat about business.”

“Ugh, I hate business.”

*

Merlin’s chat with Gwen turned out to be quite enlightening, just like Merlin presumed there really were no suspects. Arthur was a lonely king of the software empire. There was a reason that Time Magazine called him a less boring version of Bill Gates. Killing Arthur wouldn’t help anyone to get ahead, it was Arthur’s brilliant and analytical mind that put him on top in the first place.

It was his emotions he had a problem with. Mainly, the fact that he didn’t seem to have many. He could fake it really well but there were very few people in this world that Arthur really cared about. He could be so cold, probably the reason why he had so many divorces. Before Merlin could further analyze the complicated mind of Arthur Pendragon, he was interrupted by Lancelot’s arrival in the garden.

“I’ve heard rumours about you, I’m glad to see that they are true, you really did have a flattering haircut.”

“Hilarious, Lance, the last thing I need is another lecture. Your wife just spent the last few hours trying to convince me to stay for dinner, because _apparently_ I could use a good meal.”

Lance laughed, “You can’t blame her, Merlin. You are our problem child after all.”

“I am not a child,” Merlin said, simply outraged at the accusation. “I’m 32, I think I’m all grown up now.”

“It doesn’t work that way, Merlin. To Gwen and Gaius, you’ll always be their little wizard.”

“Oh God, not that nickname. And I’m glad that Gaius isn’t here, no need to reunite the trifecta.”

“At least Gaius still gets your Christmas cards, what did we do wrong, Merlin? Why don’t we deserve Christmas cards?” Lance could barely contain the mocking tone in his voice.

“Shut it. Besides, there was no need for me to send a Christmas card when I was at the actual Christmas party, that just makes sense.”

“Ah, but you were there to investigate so it doesn’t actually count,” Lance pointed out.

“How could you possibly know that?” Merlin asked.

“Gwen texted me earlier and told me all about it.”

“You really have the perfect marriage where the only communication happens with texts. You could give me some tips, I’m thinking of marrying again,” Merlin confided.

“Well, Arthur is recently divorced,” Lance suggested not very subtly.

“Not with Arthur,” Merlin sulked. “No, someone with a really cool name, I could finally give my detective agency a decent name.”

“I do hope there is still room left to catch Arthur’s stalker before you start planning this wedding.”

“Of course, this investigation will be over in no time, don’t worry. I might hate the git, but I am going to save him,” Merlin assured him.

“I don’t have any doubt you will. If you need anything, let me know.”

“Just keep an eye out when you’re with him. And be sure to call me if you see any trace of magic.”

“Sure, you know it’s weird sitting here with you underneath Kilgharrah,” Lance said.

“Why?” Merlin asked, his curiosity piqued.

“Because this morning I was sitting here on the exact same spot, only with Arthur. Seems the two of you have more in common than you believe.”

“We’ll always have Kilgharrah,” Merlin said, almost wistfully.

*

Of course, Merlin didn’t manage to escape the castle grounds without eating at least one of Gwen’s enormous portions. When he finally managed to get home, he found Will eating a bag of crisps in the couch that had creeped out Morgana. It was officially made Will’s couch a long time ago, even Merlin refused to sit there.

“Back from the castle, I thought you were going to stay there,” Will called out.

“They do have an excellent chef there, but I came home to you anyway.”

“Aww, I love you too, sweetheart. But next time, I’m the one who’s having dinner with Gwen, I spent the entire day doing useless research.”

“Didn’t find a thing?” Merlin asked.

“Nothing, it has to be some ex who is still obsessed with him for some unknown reason,” Will concluded.

“I think we may need to dig a bit deeper, maybe it isn’t just Arthur they are targeting, it could be someone with a grudge against the Pendragons in general, Uther sure made some enemies in his time.”

“Do you really have to make this even more complicated?” Will complained. “Too bad your magic can’t just point us to the bad guy.”

“You know that my magic doesn’t work like that. I need something physical to track someone down, like in the Mr. Sugar case, which I solved quite competently in your absence,” Merlin informed him.

“I’m relieved that Mr. Sugar can live in peace again. And there is an angle you haven’t talked about,” Will pointed out. “You.”

“Me? How could this case possibly be about me?” Merlin huffed.

“Maybe someone is obsessed with you and has decided to wipe out the competition,” Will said, sounding a bit too thrilled.

“You’re delusional,” Merlin snorted, “even if there was some psycho obsessed with me, in what world is Arthur competition? We’ve been divorced for over seven years.”

“Yes, and how many relationships have you had since then? Or let’s ask an even more embarrassing question, how many dates have you had? Christ, Arthur has managed to find three wives in that same timeframe.”

“I got married when I was eighteen, can you blame me for wanting to enjoy my freedom?”

“Of course not, mate. But we both know that deep down you’re the relationship type.”

Merlin didn’t even bother denying it.

*

Merlin was starting to lose his optimism about the Pendragon case. A week had passed since the Pendragon Christmas party and he still didn’t have a single lead. He had worked together with Will to research the entire guest list, but that was nothing but a dead end. He had also interrogated most of the staff, also mostly a waste of time since they had all been thoroughly screened before they were hired.

His magical methods were leading him nowhere either, there were no convenient fingerprints this time. Plus, there had been no more accidents since Morgana hired him. Merlin was starting to believe the worst-case scenario: Arthur was right.

Luckily, Merlin hadn’t called his landlord to ask if he was interested in selling the place, because the next day he found himself in the hospital. Arthur had been stabbed in his office.

According to Morgana, no vital organs had been hit so he was doing ok. That didn’t change the fact that Merlin’s heart seemed to stop ticking when he heard the news. But that was completely normal, he’d known Arthur his whole life. Even if they resented each other, he didn’t want him to die. Even Will had been slightly worried when he heard the news.

There was one silver lining, Merlin was going to win that challenge.


	3. Chapter 3

Surprisingly the first person he saw in the hospital was Elena. She had a tendency to be a bit nervous, but now she just seemed upset.

“Elena, it’s good to see you,” Merlin greeted her.  “Any updates on Arthur?”

“The doctor just did an another exam and he will be able to leave the hospital tomorrow. It was a shallow cut.” She gave him an comforting hug. “And it’s good to see you too. This must be very upsetting for you,” she added.

“Well, it does change my investigation completely. Things seem to have escalated very quickly, now that they suddenly resorted to direct violence.”

“I wasn’t talking about your investigation, Merlin. Although I am glad that you’re on this case. I just meant that everyone knows how much the two of you care about each other.”

“Seriously, sometimes I think you forget that you’re a lawyer and not running a dating agency,” Merlin retorted. “I know that you think that we’re magically going to end up together, but it is really not going to happen.”

“Well, you are magic, Merlin, stranger things have happened when you’re near,” she teased. “I just want all my friends to be happy again and selfishly if you and Arthur did get back together, I would see you more often. Since you seem determined to avoid us after your divorce.”

“I am not actively trying to avoid you. We just live in very different worlds,” Merlin clarified.

“We’re not that different, we both like to chase after criminals. Oh, and don’t pretend that you don’t enjoy fancy dress up parties, you grew up in the Pendragon mansion. You might think you’re from a different world, but you’re really not. Will is a very different story, he might be an alien.”

“Well, the Will part is certainly correct,” Merlin said and he decided to change the subject. “Can Arthur receive visitors?”

 “You can interrogate him, detective Pendragon. We’ve all visited him already. According to him, everything is just peachy.”

“I can imagine. I’ll see you later.”

*

Arthur was actually working when Merlin came into his room.

“Seriously, Arthur, you just got stabbed, I think you can take a day off.”

“I really can’t,” Arthur protested. “We’re about to launch a new prototype, I can’t afford to miss the launch because some maniac decided to stab me.”

“You can afford anything you want, Arthur,” Merlin said exasperatedly. “Can you at least tell me what exactly happened in that office? ”

Arthur finally shut down his computer and said, “Fine. This is the story of how I got stabbed, no cliffhangers, I promise. I was working in my office and asked my secretary for some tea, but instead I received a visit from a man in a very fashionable black suit who proceeded to use the big knife he had to stab me in the chest. My secretary managed to scream very loudly until I convinced her to call an ambulance. The man with the knife managed to escape my, until recently, very impressive security team and my even more impressive security cameras. I have no idea whatsoever who he was or why he decided to ruin my day by making me stay in this dreadful hospital. I usually donate to hospitals, I don’t spend time in them.”

Merlin could barely contain an eye roll. “That was the least exciting story I’ve ever heard and it actually contained a masked man and a knife. You have a gift. But, does your sudden loss of faith in your formerly fabulous security team, mean that you might support my magic theory?”

“Nice effort. But this has to be an inside job, I’ve already hired an external firm to screen all my staff,” Arthur said.

“Screen them even more? You’re already acting like you’re running the MI5. Are you going to start screening their grandmothers as well? You’re such an idiot.”

“ _I am the idiot_ ,” Arthur said haughtily. “My IQ reaches Tony Stark levels, you’re the one who’s running a magical detective agency, which is about the worst business plan you can possibly imagine.”

“You’ve already explained that to me many times, but can I just point out that I started this company without my father’s money and I’m still not living on the streets!”

“Please, Uther might have been a millionaire but I’m the one who built the Pendragon fortune and it took a lot more effort than waving a magic wand around. And would you please stop shouting at the victim of vicious stabbing!”

“You’re right, we should keep this professional,” Merlin conceded. “Mr. Pendragon, do you have any idea who is trying to kill you, please refrain from mentioning anyone standing in this room.”

“I have no idea, detective Pendragon. According to my ex-wives, I’m a great bloke. Other than my insane ex-husband, I just can’t think of anyone.”

Merlin lightly slapped his arm. “I just told you not to mention me.”

“Did you just slap me? Maybe you were my assailant after all,” Arthur accused him.

“Please, I would never stab you,” Merlin pointed out. “I would turn you into a donkey and set you free in the wild.”

“That sounds suspiciously like something Will would say. And since I have a ton of work to do and chatting to you is physically exhausting and not recommendable for stabbing victims, I will give you one name. Nimueh Roberts.”

“Her name alone hints at an interesting childhood, who is she?” Merlin asked curiously.

“You may remember that my father wasn’t exactly as loveable as me. Nimueh Roberts hated him so much that she actually tried to kill him. She was my mother’s best friend.”

Arthur’s eyes always turned a bit sad when he mentioned his mother, which almost never happened. It felt strange to see him so vulnerable again, even if it was only for a moment.

“Why did she hate Uther so much?” Merlin asked quietly.

“The hate was mutual, I believe. My father didn’t trust her because she had magic, the nobility was never fond of magic. I don’t know the exact circumstances, but Nimueh’s magic had something to do with my birth. My father really wanted a son, after they adopted Morgana. He got his son, but he lost his wife. He blamed Nimueh for her death and she blamed him. Things escalated, she used her magic to try to kill him.”

“Is that why you hate magic so much?”

“I don’t hate magic, Merlin, I’m not a bigot. Besides, for some odd reason I am quite fond of Morgana and I am not planning on burning her at the stake,” Arthur said.

Merlin smirked, “Well that’s good to hear. Meanwhile I’ll do my best to track down Nimueh. You’d be surprised how useful magic can be. Oh and by the way, I’m glad you’re not dead. I would really miss shouting at you, it’s a good stress relief.”

“That’s strange, my heart rate always seem to go up when I’m near you.”

“Aww, I make your heart beat faster, how sweet.”

“You will really be the death of me, Merlin.”

“No, I will save you from the evil masked man who stabbed you and you will grovel.”

“Never,” Arthur growled.

*

The minute Merlin stepped out of Arthur’s room, he was attacked by Morgana who looked extremely tired. Her eyes were red from exhaustion and Merlin suspected that her outfit didn’t completely match.

“Are you okay, Morgana?” Merlin felt concerned, he couldn’t remember Morgana ever looking this terrible. Even on the day of Uther’s funeral, she looked ready to walk on the catwalk.

“I’m fine, Merlin,” Morgana said, with an air of nonchalance she couldn’t quite pull off. “Arthur is the one who was nearly murdered, not me. I just wanted to know if you have any leads.”

“Arthur just gave me one,” Merlin informed her.  “Does the name Nimueh Roberts ring any bells?”

“Yes, I think she was Ygraine’s best friend, she went a bit mad after she died. I don’t really know the details, Uther refused to talk about her. Listen, can we talk in private for a moment? I need to discuss something with you.”

She looked so agitated that Merlin was really starting to worry. Usually when people looked they were about to crack, it was because they felt guilty. But what on earth could Morgana feel guilty about?

*

They sat down at a table in the almost empty cafeteria and Merlin waited till Morgana was ready to tell her story.

“I also have a name for you, one you should investigate immediately. Morgause Penroy. She’s my sister.”

Merlin was flabbergasted. “Since when do you have a sister?”

“Half-sister, really. I think you know already that Uther didn’t just adopt me out of the kindness of his heart. My parents were very good friends of his, but he seemed to get along extremely well with my mother. I’ve even found some pictures of them together in the tabloids, not very platonic at all,” she sighed.  “Uther wasn’t just my adoptive father, he was my birth father. Before my mother married my father, well legal father anyway, she had a daughter from a previous affair, Morgause Penroy. I haven’t told Arthur about her, I haven’t told anyone, not even Gwen.”

“I’m glad you were able to tell someone but you should really talk about this with Arthur, he’ll understand. What I don’t understand is why you are suspecting your sister of trying to kill Arthur. What could she possibly gain from his death?”

“It’s not about money,” Morgana answered. “It’s about revenge. Morgause is mad and she thinks that Uther and Arthur stole me from my rightful family. She is convinced that I grew up with the wrong sibling. She wants me to turn my back on my family and join hers. But you know that I would never leave Arthur, the only reason that I haven’t thrown a door in her face is because she’s very powerful. I’ve never seen such powerful magic, well except from you of course.”

“There’s a reason that I control my magic, there is nothing more dangerous than a loose magical canon. We are not living in the Middle Ages anymore, magic should always be used within limits.”

“Wow, Merlin, your Gaius impression is really starting to sound impressive,” Morgana said and she even mustered a small smile.

“Oh God, it finally started happening, the transformation is starting. But I swear to you that I will never grow my hair that long,” Merlin joked. “There is something else I need to know, did you have a dream recently? Is that the real reason you hired me? “

Morgana hesitated but decided to tell the truth anyway. “I did have a vision, it was horrible. I couldn’t tell you then, I was actually hoping that by visiting you, I could change my vision. But it hasn’t changed. I’ve had the same dream several times now and it always ends the same way, Arthur is dead.”

“How?” Merlin asked even if he already knew the answer.

“Magic, someone used magic to kill him. I don’t know who it was, but it was like a bolt of energy was suddenly blasted at his heart. He fell down and ..”

“Do you honestly have no idea who it could possibly be? Did you recognize Morgause in any way?” Merlin pressed.

“No, my dream was completely focused on Arthur, I couldn’t recognize his assailant or even the room he was standing in. But that’s just standard procedure for me, I only dream about the people I care about. That’s how I knew that Arthur and you were planning to elope, and managed to rectify that.”

“I’ll be forever grateful that I got married in a castle surrounded by hundreds of guests.”

“I knew you would thank me one day. In fact, maybe it’s time for you to come back to the castle,” Morgana suggested.

“What?”

“I’m proposing that you, and Will of course, move into the castle for the duration of the investigation. We have to do everything we can, to change the future.”

“Hiring me hasn’t changed anything, why would moving in do?”

“I just told you that the person who is after Arthur, has very powerful magic. You’re the only one who can match that. Please Merlin, will you help me save Arthur?” Morgana nearly begged.

“Of course, I will. I’ll text Will that he should start packing his bags. We’ll be there by tomorrow morning.”

*

“I can’t believe we’re going back to the castle,” Will said, busy trying to stuff his entire jeans collection into his suitcase.

“You do realize that you never officially lived there, even though the staff was responsible for your survival.”

“How dare you, I am a very independent young man. Ah, but the kitchen staff, I really missed them.” Will almost teared up a little.

“This is not a holiday, Will. We’re staying there to catch a killer,” Merlin reminded him. “Our main goal is to make sure that Morgana’s dream remains a dream.”

“If we’re going to catch a super evil magical killer, it’s important that we maintain a healthy diet.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Maybe, but even I know that this visit is going to change everything,” Will said and he started putting away his shirts.


	4. Chapter 4

It was impressive to see a massive man like Percy struggle so hard with Will’s suitcase. But knowing Will, he had probably packed most of what he owned. Merlin’s suitcase was tiny in comparison, since he was still hoping that this would be a very short stay.

Gwen seemed to think different, she had also invited Gwaine and Elena to stay and she had called Gaius who’d decided to come back the minute he heard the news about Arthur. It seemed like they were going to be one big, happy family. Although the happiness factor would probably drop once Arthur arrived. Merlin decided to make a tactical retreat to the library.

His main worry was Morgana who seemed to grow increasingly paranoid, she had doubled the already impressive security team. Merlin had a long discussion with the head of security about tracking down Nimueh and Morgause. Leon believed that Nimueh and Morgause were both still abroad. In fact, Morgause had contacted Morgana only two days ago and she was definitely still in Australia then. Nimueh was more of a mystery but Gaius seemed to be under the impression that she had lived in Canada all these years and he was the only one who actually knew her.

But Merlin still wasn’t convinced that either of them were trying to kill Arthur. What would possess Nimueh to kill Arthur after all these years? Uther was dead and had been for quite a long time and essentially Arthur had nothing to do with their feud. Why would she want to kill her best friend’s son?

The same was also true for Morgause, she might hate the Pendragons for ‘stealing’ her sister, but killing Arthur was crossing a completely different line. And Arthur hadn’t even been born, when Uther adopted Morgana. Even if she did hate Arthur, according to Morgana, she was married and had two daughters of her own. Would she really risk losing her own family?

It just didn’t make any sense to Merlin. Plus, using magic was a huge risk for Morgause or Nimueh, they might as well have put a target on their forehead. Merlin was still leaning towards his original theory, that the real killer was someone who hired a wizard to do his or her dirty work.

He decided it was time to discuss the case with Will, he needed some fresh perspective on this. He had a sneaking suspicion he could find him in the kitchen, without a doubt his favourite place in the house. Apparently his detective skills weren’t that rusty, because Merlin did find him there, eating from a giant plate. In his defence, he was sharing it with Gwaine.

“Merlin, we meet again,” Gwaine laughed. “Will was just explaining the benefits of having a healthy meal in the afternoon. Although, I may have to combine it with a gym visit, it takes work to maintain a body like mine.”

“Oi,” Will said, “you’re the one who started eating from MY plate. You’re very lucky that you’re still able to show off those muscles.”

“Stop it you two, this is not the time. Will, I need to talk to you about the case,” Merlin said.

“Fine, just let me finish this first.” Will proceeded to eat as much as he possibly could before Merlin took his plate away.

“I knew I could find you boys in the kitchen, especially when Will is present,” Elena said, walking in.

“That’s me, dependable. Remember that, Elena, it might come in handy,” Will said and waved at her with his fork.

“I’ll definitely remember that,” Elena said and she gave them all a kiss on the cheek. “I have to warn you, I came here with Arthur a while ago but he insisted on visiting his office first. I hope Lance manages to control him a bit.”

“I doubt it,” Merlin muttered. “Well, at least we won’t be seeing him for a while, he’ll be there until he starts bleeding out.”

“I might pay him a visit,” Will said, finally finished with his meal. “It’s been a long time since I had the pleasure of bickering with someone as vigorous as Arthur. I miss it, Merlin is such an easy target.”

“I’m not easy,” Merlin protested. “I have excellent banter.”

“No need to be jealous, I’m not planning on stealing Arthur from you.”

“I’m not jealous, just defending my banter skills,” Merlin said, feeling a bit offended.

 “Of course you are,” Gwaine said, using his soothing voice.

“Now isn’t this a pretty picture, my unwelcome guests raiding my fridge.”

“Arthur,” Will said cheerfully, “we were just gossiping about you. Take a seat so you can join us.”

“How kind of you, William, to invite me to sit down in my own kitchen. But I think I will, if you all don’t mind,” Arthur replied.

“You really should sit down, Arthur,” Elena said with a concerned tone. “The doctors allowing you to go home, does not mean that you’re completely alright. You should be resting right now.”

“I am resting, in my kitchen. It’s a relaxing place.”

“I agree with you completely,” Will said. “And I have to say that this particular one is a masterpiece. Much nicer than the one in your old house, although I do feel quite nostalgic about that one. So many adventures we had there.”

Merlin kicked Will to shut him up. Normally, everyone loved a good Will-Arthur fight, but Morgana would never forgive him if Arthur ruptured his stitches.

“We have to go, _now_.” He took Will’s arm and dragged him from his chair. “If you’ll excuse us, we need to discuss the case.”

“ _The case_ is sitting right here, Merlin. You might as well discuss it here,” Arthur said.

“I’m afraid Will and I have a very specific method, no outsiders allowed.“

“Fine,” Arthur conceded, “but I need to speak to you. Meet me under Kilgharrah in one hour.”

“I’ll be there, but now we must dash.”

*

Merlin went back to the library with Will, even though he was actually very curious what Arthur wanted to talk to him about. Was there another crazy witch who hated the Pendragons?

But first he updated Will on his theories about Morgause and Nimueh. Will agreed with him that they weren’t exactly the most logical suspects.

“We’ve encountered two kinds of murderers in our many adventures,” Will said, using his professor voice. “The ones who kill because they love someone a bit too much and the ones who kill because they love money too much. And we are dealing with a billionaire here, so I’m choosing door number two.”

“I agree. Morgana is convinced that Morgause did it, Leon thinks it’s someone of the staff, and the police thinks it’s a disgruntled ex.”

“Well, the police is definitely wrong, sadly the butler didn’t do it either and Morgana isn’t thinking straight at the moment. You’re right, they’re all wrong.” Will gave him an encouraging shoulder pat. “Don’t worry, Merlin, you’ll get there in the end. Now it’s time for you to leave, if you don’t want to be late for your date with Pendragon.”

“It’s not a date,” Merlin pointed out.

“Sure, it isn’t. Arthur probably has vital information about the case that he needs to tell you sitting under your special tree, where you carved your names on your wedding day. Sounds like a business meeting to me.”

Merlin honestly had no reply to that.

*

Arthur was sitting on a very new couch under Kilgharrah, probably one of Gwen’s ideas. Merlin didn’t understand why Arthur had insisted on meeting him here. The living room must be much more comfortable, even if Gwen transported part of it here.

Arthur didn’t waste any time and immediately got to the point. “Morgana just told me everything about your conversation with her, apparently my sister has a sister. I really need you to tell me if you believe that this Morgause person is my attacker.”

Merlin got on the couch and responded, “I don’t think so. I think Morgana feels guilty because she didn’t confide in you. In fact, I don’t think Morgause or Nimueh are involved in this case.”

“Exactly how many people do you suspect are walking around right now, planning my murder?” Arthur inquired.

“Just the one. I mean, I’m sure that there are other people dreaming of ripping your head off, but only one of them is actually executing these plans.”

“That makes me feel heaps better. But I’m glad that’s sorted, maybe Morgana can invite her new sister to our next Christmas party.”

“Wait, that’s it. You are not even questioning my judgment,” Merlin said, very surprised by Arthur’s easy acceptance.

“You’re the detective, I’m just assuming that you can’t be that horrible at it anymore since Morgana hired you. No matter how fond she is of you, she wouldn’t hire a complete slacker to protect me.”

“I am glad I’ll be able to use you as a reference. But I _am_ protecting you and I hope you haven’t forgotten your promise,” Merlin reminded him.

Arthur glanced at their names carved in the tree and looked Merlin straight in the eyes, “I never forget a promise.”

Arthur was very good at initiating intense eye contact. Merlin was determined to avoid an awkward moment and hastily said, “I should go, lots of investigating to do.”

“See you at dinner,” Arthur agreed.

*

Dinner really was exquisite and it was nice to catch up with everyone. Merlin was starting to have trouble remembering why he had avoided these gatherings in the past few years. But it probably wouldn’t be the same if Arthur’s current wife was sitting with them. Merlin spent most of the night talking with Morgana, who seemed much more relaxed now that she had told Arthur everything about Morgause.

Arthur mostly talked with Elena, but he did sneak a few glances at Merlin throughout the night. Merlin avoided his looks as much as possible, things were complicated enough without adding in Arthur-related feelings. Damn, this place.

*

The next morning left Merlin with an entirely new mystery to solve: where had Will spend the night? It certainly wasn’t in his guest room, the bed was actually made up and there was no trace of Will. The odds of Will having made up that bed were nonexistent, since it was eight o’clock in the morning. Merlin didn’t have to wait long to confront Will, who waltzed into the room without a care in the world. Merlin knew that face, it was his sex face.

“Good morning, Will,” he said sternly.

“Good morning, Merlin. It surprises me you got up so late, I just took a stroll around the place. A detective’s companion should know his surroundings,” Will said, a lot more cheerful sounding.

“Hmm, you don’t honestly think that I’m going go buy that. Of all the possible excuses you could have made, you went with morning exercise? Honestly, I am a professional.”

“Go ahead, deduce,” Will challenged him.

“First of all, you don’t get up voluntarily before nine in the morning, I have never seen you make up a bed, it can’t be the work of the maids either because they start working at nine. You were just clearly wearing ‘I just got sex’ face, I know you stayed in the guest wing because otherwise I should have heard footsteps on the stairs. Elena would never sleep with you and you were sharing your food with Gwaine. Conclusion: you slept with Gwaine.”

“Very well deduced, detective. And it was good,” Will exclaimed, sounding very satisfied.

“What the fuck, Will! You make this entire speech about how I’m not allowed to sleep with Gwaine and then you sleep with him yourself. Besides the enormous hypocrisy, this just doesn’t make sense. Since when have you and Gwaine been a thing? This isn’t the first time, is it?” he questioned.

“Not exactly,” Will hesitantly admitted.

“Why did you never tell me about this? I’m supposed to be your best friend, if I’d slept with Arthur last night, I wouldn’t lie to you about it.”

“Honestly, Merlin, it’s really not that important, it’s just sex. Completely meaningless sex, but I know you don’t really understand the concept.”

“This is not some random bloke you picked up in a bar,” Merlin pointed out.  “This is Gwaine we’re talking about. The boy we’ve known since we were kids.”

“Fine, you want to know the details. First time we hooked up was at your wedding, we were both so drunk that I can barely remember any of it. Then it happened a couple of more times. _But_ it hasn’t happened since you made your dramatic exit from the Pendragon castle and I joined you, being the best friend I am,” Will immediately clarified.

“You know, you’re always making fun of me being too fond of relationships, but it wouldn’t actually kill you be in one.”

“Oh my god, you want me to be boyfriends with Gwaine? Are you mad? Should I worry about hallucinogenic fumes in the air?”

“Why not?” Merlin insisted. “You clearly like each other, otherwise you wouldn’t still be sneaking around like this in your thirties. And I thought I was being paranoid, but I did notice that he really didn’t take his eyes off you last night. I mean, he might have made his usual flirty remarks to me, but he didn’t actually make an effort, like he usually does when he wants to sleep with someone.”

All of a sudden, Merlin started laughing hysterically.

“What is wrong with you?” Will asked. “There really are fumes in the air, laughing gas or something.”

Merlin finally managed to say, “It’s just all this time, Elena was so worried that poor Gwaine was pining over me and that’s the reason he could never commit. But he was actually pining over you!”

“Ok, now I’m sure that you’re on something. Gwaine doesn’t _pine_ and certainly not over me. Elena has been watching too many Hugh Grant movies, I think it’s time I introduce her to some Tarantino. Life is not some romantic comedy, where everyone gets a happy ending.”

“I’ll check out Gwaine’s DVD collection, so we know where he stands. But I think he wants to live happily ever after with you.” Merlin poked Will’s chest with his finger.

“You’re enjoying this way too much.”

“Are you kidding me? After all these years of you mocking me over being too soppy over Arthur, this is amazing. I can’t wait to give my best man speech, I might start writing it right now.”

“Fuck off.”

“Bet you wouldn’t say that to Gwaine.”

*

The Gwaine situation managed to give Merlin a very smug smile. Unfortunately, Gwaine wasn’t at the castle today, so he wasn’t able to interrogate him. Will had chosen for an emergency evacuation, the coward.

But all that talk about relationships had also given him something to think about. Why was it that this whole thing only started after Arthur’s divorce? It was time for yet another talk with Arthur, because he really had to find out who was the heir to his fortune.

Predictably, he found Arthur in his office. Hopefully this conversation would be more successful than the last one they had in here. Arthur looked up from his laptop when he noticed Merlin walking in.

“Merlin, what can I do for you today? Any new suspects?”

“Actually, I’ve thought about it and maybe it’s time to go back to the basics of every decent detective novel. So that’s why I’m asking you who your heir is,” Merlin said.

“My heir?” Arthur repeated. “The only person who could benefit from my death is Morgana, I suppose. And up until a few months ago, Sophia, but my lawyers made sure that she wouldn’t have been a very wealthy widow. You don’t honestly think that Morgana is plotting my death to gain my fortune?”

“Of course not,” Merlin replied. “But are you sure that there is no one else who could possibly benefit from your death, any long lost relatives?”

“Not that I’m aware of, the only family I have is Morgana, after Uther died. Uther didn’t have relatives, and neither did my mother,” Arthur said thoughtfully.

“Hmm, maybe I should double-check that. You have no idea what people would do for an inheritance, like for instance try to kill their dead aunt’s dog.”

“I can only hope that was hypothetical. But go ahead and check out my family tree. I’ll ask my lawyer to send you the details of my will. Which reminds me that there is someone who has a rather large benefit from my death: you.”

“Are you talking about the castle? I’ve already told you to put it on your name only, you paid for it.”

“And I told you that I would never do that. It’s yours to keep,” Arthur reminded him.

“Does that mean you’re going to start paying rent?” Merlin teased.

“Don’t push it. But at least even if you don’t manage to crack the case, you’ll have a new place to live.”

“I am going to crack this case. I’m not walking away from this, I would never leave anyone hanging with a psychotic stalker,” Merlin said with utmost confidence.

“Merlin, when it comes to chasing psychotic stalkers there is no one on earth I trust more than you. Then again, you are the only detective I know.”

Merlin merely rolled his eyes.

*

The rest of the morning was uneventful, actually there had been no more incidents since Arthur had been confined to the castle. Merlin received a call from Arthur’s lawyer who confirmed that Morgana was Arthur’s only heir and that a large part of his inheritance would go to various charities. Which left Merlin thinking up crazy theories about some secret love child whose mother wanted to claim the inheritance. But maybe there was some secret relative after all, Uther wasn’t exactly known for his openness, the man had tons of secrets.

One of the things Merlin _did_ know about Uther was that he could be quite vain. Definitely the kind of man who would make sure that he looked dashing on his wedding day and who would make sure that there was a lot of evidence attesting to that. When Merlin asked Gwen for Uther’s wedding album, it took her a while to find it between Uther’s old stuff in the attic but she managed to locate it.  

“What are you trying to find in here?” Gwen asked.

“Weddings really are a magical thing, it’s the one time when most families seem to be able to set aside their differences and get drunk together. That’s why I’m hoping to find my missing family member in one of these pictures,” he explained.

“If you do find someone, Gaius will be able to help you, he’s arriving in a couple of hours.”

“Great, because I could really use someone who was actually there. But first, could you help me look through these? This wedding album seems to have at least a thousand pictures, the bible looks shorter.”

“Of course,” she laughed.

It took them at least an hour of sorting through the wedding album but they did end up finding someone who appeared to be a brother of Arthur’s mother, or at least that’s what the text beneath the picture said. Seeing that Uther had erased him from his existence, they were probably not best friends. Fortunately, even Uther was sentimental enough to not destroy pictures from his wedding. Looking at these pictures that wasn’t very surprising, he seemed to have really loved Ygraine.

It was time to find out why he didn’t share that love for Agravaine de Bois.

*


	5. Chapter 5

Merlin was looking forward to talking with Gaius about the case, but at the same time he was dreading one of Gaius’ famous lectures. The objective was to distract him as quickly as possible with his own questions.

Merlin carefully knocked on Gaius’ open door and said, “Hello, Gaius, it’s nice to see you. I actually have a couple of urgent questions for you.”

“Sit down, boy,” Gaius said with all the authority he could muster. “We need to talk, why don’t you start with telling me everything you know about what is going in this madhouse.”

Merlin of course had no choice but to obey. He’d barely finished his story when Gaius started pulling out of one his favourite lectures. “Merlin, I need you to be very careful. You are potentially dealing with a very powerful wizard. I need you to be ready for this, I think it’s best we start working on your magic as soon as possible.”

“You’re the one who has been teaching me to control my magic my whole life. You can’t expect me to start throwing magical balls of energy around.”

“Of course not, but you will have to take into account that you might not manage to solve this case in time. It wouldn’t be the first time,” Gaius said gently.

“Don’t even mention her,” Merlin growled. “This case has nothing do with that. Listen, I came to talk to you because I need some crucial information so can you please answer my questions?”

“I will do whatever I can to help you and Arthur. But this conversation isn’t finished, Merlin, we need to discuss your magic,” Gaius warned him.

“Fine,” Merlin allowed. He tried to get the conversation back on track by asking, “What can you tell me about Agravaine de Bois?”

“Agravaine,” Gaius repeated, raising his impressive eyebrows. “I haven’t heard that name in a long time. He is Ygraine’s brother, but they drifted apart even before her death.”

“Well, he was definitely at her wedding.” Merlin showed him the picture he found. “This is him, right?”

“It is,” Gaius confirmed. “That must have been one of the last times they saw each other.”

“Could you help me with the timeline? Was this before Morgana was born?”

Gaius looked at the enormously happy Ygraine and Uther in the picture and said, “Morgana was conceived shortly before Uther met Ygraine. It was love at first sight for them, they married after a very short courtship. A short while later, Morgana’s parents passed away and Uther was kind enough to take her in.”

Merlin already suspected the answer to his next question would be positive. “Did you know Uther was her real father?”

“I had my suspicions, as did Ygraine, but in the end it doesn’t really matter. Uther is the man who raised her and he’s the only father she’s ever really known,” Gaius said.

“But apparently Morgana wasn’t enough for him, he wanted a son,” Merlin frowned.

“One of the old-fashioned traditions of the nobility, I’m afraid. A son to continue the line. But unfortunately, it appeared almost impossible for them to conceive a child and that’s when Nimueh offered her assistance.”

Merlin had known Uther all his life and still found it hard to believe that Uther willingly allowed Nimueh to use such powerful magic on his wife. He never treated Merlin or Morgana differently for having magic, but he wasn’t exactly a fan of it either. “Why did he agree with her plans?”

“Ygraine begged him to agree with their plans, he didn’t really have much of a choice. What he didn’t know, what none of us knew, was that such powerful magic always comes with a price and that price was Ygraine. Nimueh was convinced that the spell went wrong because of him. That he didn’t love her enough and was too obsessed with having a son. She even tried to assassinate him. In the end, she left for Canada and Uther focused on raising his children. And for all his faults, I think he did a fine job of that.”

Merlin was starting to understand more and more why Arthur had been reacting so heavily to magic recently. “What about Agravaine? How exactly did that feud start?” Merlin inquired.

“I’ve told you that Uther fell in love with Ygraine at first sight, but when he found out that she was a de Bois, even he had his doubts,” Gaius explained further. “The family had a very good name, but they also had many debts. Apparently, Agravaine believed that a marriage between his sister and a wealthy nobleman was the perfect solution to their monetary problems. So the first meeting between Ygraine and Uther was perhaps not as spontaneous as Uther first believed. I am actually the one who discovered this and I informed Uther immediately. He was furious, if there is one thing Uther Pendragon could not stand, it was being played for a fool. Arthur is not much different in that respect. He loved Ygraine too much to break of their engagement but he gave her an ultimatum, it was either him or her brother. She didn't chose Agravaine.”

“But he was still at the wedding,” Merlin asked confused.

“That was one of Uther’s few concessions, he wanted her family to be there at their wedding.”

“Do you have any idea where Agravaine could be right now?”

“Unfortunately not,” Gaius answered, sounding genuinely disappointed. “I heard he married a wealthy widow and she died soon after the wedding. But that is the last news I’ve heard of him. I didn’t even think he was still alive.”

“Well, I think he is still very much alive but he seems determined to make sure that Arthur isn’t. He must be running out of widows,” Merlin remarked.

“I can tell you one thing about Agravaine, he has no magic.”

“Yes, that’s what I suspected,” Merlin sighed. “He could literally be anywhere in the world and have one of his hired men kill Arthur. Oh god, this probably means he wants to kill Morgana as well. It explains why he waited for Arthur to be single, so he could claim the inheritance as Arthur’s only surviving family member. I have to warn Arthur and Morgana immediately.”

He stopped to thank Gaius and made his exit. He ran into Morgana in the hallway.

“Morgana, I have to speak to you immediately. I think I’ve discovered who is behind all of this.”

“You have,” Morgana said, her eyes lighting up with hope. “I’ll text Arthur to meet us in the living room, Gwen and Leon should be there too. Or perhaps you would like the whole gang to be there, do an Agatha Christie style reveal?”

“Why not,” Merlin replied. “Everyone is going to find out anyway once I inform Will.”

*

It only took a few minutes for everyone to gather in the living room, even Gwaine and Will had made a mysterious return. Merlin was starting to feel a bit nervous with everyone watching him so anxiously.

“Well, detective Pendragon, dazzle us,” Will encouraged him.

 “After some careful research with Gwen and a long conversation with Gaius, I think I’ve might have found a plausible suspect: Agravaine de Bois.”

“Are we supposed to know who exactly that is?” Arthur inquired impatiently. Apparently, Merlin wasn’t the only one who was slightly nervous.

“He’s your uncle, your mother’s brother,” Merlin told him. “Uther did his utmost best to erase him completely from existence, save for a few pictures in his own, private collection. That’s why you’ve never heard of him and why you didn’t consider him when you made your will.”

“Are you saying that Arthur’s own uncle is trying to kill him just to inherit his fortune?” Morgana said, disgust clearly showing in her voice. “Do you honestly believe he is capable of that?” she directed her question to Gaius.

Gaius considered his answer for a moment and eventually said, “I’m afraid so, Agravaine was quite a heartless man. Many suspected that he only married Lady de Bourgh for her late husband’s money. It was considered highly suspicious when she died a few months after the wedding. Especially since she died of a heart attack at only thirty years of age. We believed he fled the country afterwards and I haven’t heard anything about him since.”

Arthur seemed to grow increasingly frustrated. “Any other family secrets you need to tell me about, Gaius? Maybe I have a secret sister too? Or maybe you know yet another wizard who hates me?”

“I’m truly sorry, Arthur,” Gaius said sincerely. “But I didn’t think it was my place to tell you these things. After your father’s death, I thought his secrets would be buried with him as well.”

“Should have bought a bigger coffin,” Will mumbled almost inaudibly.

“Are you sure we should exclude Morgause and Nimueh completely,” Lance chimed in to ease some of the tension in the room.

“No, I mean I could be completely wrong about this and perhaps Agravaine has nothing do with this. But all my instincts make me believe he is. Nevertheless, Leon should definitely continue searching for Nimueh and Morgause, but I would consider making finding Agravaine a priority.”

“I will,” Leon agreed. “Is there anything else we can do?”

“I don’t think so,” Merlin said. “Although if Agravaine or someone else hired the wizard who stabbed Arthur in his office, searching for him in particular is pointless. It’s likely that different people are responsible for Arthur’s accidents. We have to find out who hired them, that’s the only way to end this.”

“Don’t worry, Arthur, we’ll solve this,” Elena tried to assure him. There was no reaction from Arthur.

*

Merlin thought it was best to give Arthur some time to deal with everything he learned. Unfortunately, they didn’t have loads of time either, sooner or later they were going to strike again.

It was strange, one of the reasons he accepted Morgana’s offer was the promise of a magical mystery. In his career he hadn’t encountered many people with magic. For most people, magic was only a minor part of their lives. Sure he had seen the occasional case in the past few years, but never something of this magnitude, well with one notable exception. It was all a bit too organized, this wasn’t just one random wizard being seduced by a payslip. Someone had to give these wizards specific instructions. Either Agravaine was some criminal mastermind or someone else was pulling the strings.

He was disturbed in his thoughts by Will who joined him in what seemed to become his office, the library.

“I can practically see your little grey cells working. I have to say this case seems to keep taking dramatic twists. Who would have thought that Arthur had a crazy uncle?”

Merlin still felt like he wasn’t completely on the right track and asked, “Will, do you honestly think I’m right about this?”

“Of course, I think so. I’m not saying this to boost your ego, but you are a good detective. You should follow your instincts. Besides don’t we have like a 99% success rate?”

“It’s that 1% that I’m worried about. This is Arthur and Morgana we’re talking about, if anything happens to them..”

“Nothing will happen to them,” Will said with his usual confidence still intact.  “Now that the pep talk is over, can we start discussing the case again? I have some brilliant points to make.”

“Actually, I was thinking about something. What if someone is running an agency similar to ours but instead of investigating the crimes, they’re the ones committing them.”

“Oh, like an agency for evil wizards. That actually sounds lucrative, sure you don’t want to change your own business plan.”

“No, thanks. Remember, I’m a nice boy. I was wondering if you could go back to the city and talk to some people for me at The Tavern. I’d go myself but I think Morgana prefers me locked up and I don’t want to risk my life defying her. You could take Gwaine with you, make a date of it.”

“Will you give it a rest already!” Will demanded. “We have friends to save, this is not the time for matchmaking.”

“That’s rich coming from you,” Merlin retorted. “But seriously, take Gwaine with you. We need someone who looks important, try to convince them that Gwaine needs someone to do a job for him. The Tavern is the place to be for slightly immoral wizards and we really need a name if we want to sort out this mess.”

“I’ll go, but you need to sort yourself out too. Have a beer with Lance or something, but don’t forget that your brain needs some relaxation too.”

“Just make sure that you and Gwaine don’t get too relaxed tonight.”

Will held up his fingers and said, “I solemnly swear that there will be no shenanigans tonight.”

“If only you had some credibility,” Merlin sighed.

*

Merlin actually followed Will’s advice and had a few drinks with Lance. It turned out there was still some leftover champagne from the Christmas party. Of course, Merlin’s mind was still focused on what was happening with Will and Gwaine. At least it was, until they started their third bottle. Then he really stopped thinking.

“I haven’t seen you this drunk since you first discovered the wonders of alcohol,” Lance said with great joy.

“I’m not that drunk, I could totally walk over a line.”

“I think you mean walk in a straight line. Maybe it’s time for me to bring you back to your room. Gwen is probably wondering where I am anyway.”

“I think I’ll be able to find it without a guide,” Merlin chuckled. “I might go to Will’s room anyway, he should be back by now.”

“I don’t think you’re in a state to be working tonight. Come on, let’s go.” Lance offered Merlin his hand but he declined.

“Honestly, Lance, I appreciate the concern but I’ll take care of myself.”

“Trust me, I know.”

*

In hindsight, Lance maybe had a point. It wasn’t _that_ easy to find his room, somehow he ended up in the wrong wing where the only person he managed to locate was Arthur.

“Are you drunk?” Arthur asked when he saw Merlin leaning against the wall to keep his balance.

“I might have drunk a tiny bit of champagne,” Merlin admitted, trying not to stumble over his words.

“Ah yes, I remember how much you seemed to love that stuff. And apparently it has made you lose all sense of direction, you’re on the wrong floor.”

“Oops, I thought this hallway was too luxurious, the guest wing is way less awesome.”

“Thank you for the interior design tips, very much appreciated. Especially coming from someone with your amazing sense of style. Now, do you need an escort to your room or are you planning on sleeping on the floor?”

“Hmm, take me to my room, sir.”

Arthur smiled and said, “You know you’re a lot more friendly when you’re drunk.”

“So are you. And a lot hornier too.”

“Right, I think that’s our cue to leave.”

“Before I embarrass myself you mean.”

“Not exactly what I’m getting at,” Arthur said and he supported Merlin by putting his arm around his shoulder.

“Do you think I’m a good detective, Arthur?” Merlin asked when they finally started walking.

“I’ve already told you, Morgana has high standards for everyone she hires. If you manage to meet them, you can’t be that awful.”

“But I’m not talking about Morgana,” Merlin persisted.

“Since when does my opinion matter so much to you?” Arthur questioned. “It’s not like I’m planning on rehiring you in the future. When all of this is finished, I’m sure you’ll find some other poor bugger with a crazy stalker. And sadly, you’ll be able to invite him to your own flat.”

“Ah, right the bet. I’d nearly forgotten. Why are you so obsessed with buying me real estate? Do you do the same for all your spouses?”

“You’re a very special case, Merlin, and we’ve finally managed to reach your door even though it cost me most feeling in my arm.”

“Oh my god,” Merlin cried out. “You just got stabbed with stitches and everything, and I let you carry me all the way here. Are you bleeding somewhere?” Merlin started searching for any sign of blood.

“I’m fine,” Arthur scoffed. “You’re as light as a feather. I might as well have carried you here bridal style. Now get inside, you need some rest.”

“Hmm, I like it when you’re bossy,” Merlin blurted out.

“That’s strange since you have such an aversion to being bossed around.”

“There is a time and a place for everything.”

Before Arthur could find out when and where that was exactly, they were interrupted by some very loud giggling.

“I’m sorry, are we intruding?” Gwaine managed to ask.

“You are so drunk,” Merlin accused Will.

“So are you,” Will fired back. “And apparently you were up to shenanigans.”

“How dare you!  You’re the one who sleeps in Gwaine’s bed instead of your own.

“Wait a second, Will and Gwaine are sleeping together? What on earth is happening here?” Arthur asked.

“Nothing is going on,” Will said. “Everything is fine and everyone is going to their own room.”

Arthur agreed reluctantly. “Gwaine, we will have a long talk in the morning. Will, I hope you realize how screwed you are.” He nodded at Merlin and went back to his own room.

Merlin decided to just drop down on his bed, without bothering taking off his clothes. Just before he fell asleep, he realized that he didn’t have a chance to ask Will about The Tavern. Oh well, there was always tomorrow.

*

Surprisingly, Will was the one to wake up Merlin the next morning by jumping in his bed.

“I think you may have the wrong room,” Merlin murmured, “ Gwaine is definitely not in this bed.”

“Nope, I’m exactly where I need to be. Or have you forgotten that I still need to debrief, chief?”

“Of course not, but I was hoping that I would be a bit more conscious while you did it.”

“Trust me, the information I have will wake you up in an instant. It’s good, Merlin, really good.”

“Really,” Merlin perked up. He lifted his head from his very comfortable pillow and turned around to face Will. “What did you find out?”

“First of all, that you are a good detective. So I hope that means there will be no more pity parties in the future. Because apparently there is an agency you call when you need an evil wizard to take care of your problems. Kind of like an evil version of the A-Team.”

“That is good information,” Merlin said, sounding impressed. “Did Gwaine manage to hire someone?”

“I have to admit, he was amazing. He charmed the pants out of the room and there was one guy in particular who seemed to have the necessary connections, his name was Edwin or something. Gwaine convinced him that he wanted to get rid of his wife to make room for his new boy toy. Edwin told him, after the necessary liquid was provided, to make a call to this number.” Will showed him a beer card with a number hastily written on it.

“He told him to ask for Cedric, apparently he does the bookings,” he added.

“Well, then I guess we’ll have to make a call and find out where it takes us. Just out of curiosity, can we cast you as the boy toy?”

“You’re going to pay for that, little Merlin.” Will proceeded to use Merlin’s amazing pillow to wake him up completely.

*

Merlin was very grateful for the fact that Gwaine had consumed so many alcohol in his life that last night’s actions had no effect on him. All in all, the night had been a definite success, even if it had lead to Arthur finding about Will and Gwaine and he clearly hadn’t forgotten about it either. It took several minutes of Arthur ribbing Will, before Merlin could officially start his meeting.

“Seriously, Arthur, that’s enough, it’s not our place to judge Will and Gwaine’s eternal love.” That comment earned him a filthy glare from Will and a slight blush from Gwaine. “We’re here to discuss what we’re going to do with our newly acquired information.”

“Then I honestly don’t understand what Arthur is doing here,” Will said. “Isn’t he supposed to sit down and look pretty while we save his miserable life?”

“Will, we have to focus now,” Merlin chided. “And Arthur is an vital part of my brand new plan. Well, it’s actually a trap because I’m sick and tired of waiting around to see if anyone’s going to attack again. It’s time we took some initiative in this case and that’s why I’m proposing the following: Gwaine calls this Cedric and sets up a meeting with him. This way we try to find out as much as we can about our mystery organization. Although they probably won’t reveal too much, these people are not idiots. It won’t take them long to find out about Gwaine’s connection to Arthur, we just have to hope that his false identity holds up at our next meeting. But that isn’t enough which brings me to my next step, Arthur’s wedding announcement.”

“My what?” Arthur repeated incredulously.

“This whole thing started after your divorce, so a wedding should make an excellent trap. They won’t be able to resist striking at the wedding, it’s perfect.”

“No,” Arthur resolutely said. “I’m never marrying again, never. Four weddings is more than enough to last me a lifetime.”

“Hmm, this is where I should make an obvious funeral pun,” Will said.

“Arthur, you don’t actually have to go through with the wedding,” Merlin explained. “We just need to do something to force them to act quickly. If I’m right and this is about your inheritance, they will do everything in their power to stop this wedding anyway. And worst-case scenario we hire a fake priest or something. Rest assured, this will not be legal.”

“And who exactly are you proposing to be the bride?” Gwaine asked.

“I don’t know, I was thinking of using one of Morgana’s models. It has to be someone who can be discreet, in any case. Perhaps Elena.”

“I’m not involving Elena in this,” Arthur said. “Not that I’m agreeing with your plan of course, but I’m not putting my best friend at risk.”

“You actually have a point,” Merlin admitted. “Your security team is a much better option, maybe Leon.”

“Are you honestly suggesting that I fake marry Leon, please. It doesn’t matter what you say or who you suggest, I’m not putting my friends or anyone in my employment in danger.”

“Then you’ll have to marry Merlin,” Will piped up.

Arthur, Merlin and Gwaine gave him a simultaneous what-the-fuck look.

“It’s perfect, isn’t it? He is not working for you but for Morgana, he is the only one with enough magic to stand up to these evil wizards and it’s actually believable that you’d marry him so quickly after your recent divorce. We could play up the whole ‘old love is rekindled’ angle. Besides, it’s not like you two are friends, right,” he added mischievously.

“Wow, that’s actually quite brilliant,” Gwaine piped up and he rewarded Will with a huge grin.

“It’s a horrible idea,” Merlin said. “First of all, we don’t need to make this whole thing believable. Arthur has a history of marrying any woman who smiles at him, while I’m a lot less believable as Arthur’s loyal fiancé. Besides, I need to focus on this case and there is no way in hell that I’m marrying Arthur again.”

“Not to mention Merlin’s habit of nearly dying when he gets a bit too involved in his cases,” Arthur said.

“Really, Arthur! You’re bringing this up now. You know what, I’m doing everything I can to save your bloody life and if that means marrying you, then I will do it.”’

“Your first proposal was a lot more touching but I will accept anyway,” Arthur responded.

That just made Merlin lose it completely. “Are you insane? Why would you ever agree with this? Is it just to spite me, because this is not the time to blame me for our divorce!”

“But Merlin, I thought there was nothing that could make you walk away from this case. Was that not true?” Arthur asked.

“You’re such a bastard, using that against me. But guess what: you win. I’ll be your fake fiancé and I’ll catch your bloody killer. But don’t you ever dare use Mary against me again. Or, I’ll finish the job myself.”

Will and Gwaine wisely stayed quiet after Merlin’s outburst. He stormed out the room and Arthur went after him.

*

“Merlin! Would you please stop for a second, we need to talk.”

Merlin ignored Arthur’s request and stormed out of the castle, right into the garden.

“There is nothing for us to talk about, Arthur,” he shouted without looking back. “I think it’s clear where we stand on this. Like I said, I will help you.”

“I’m not talking about this stupid plan or this case, I’m talking about what I said earlier, about Mary.”

Merlin finally stopped walking and turned around to face Arthur. “I’m sorry, Arthur, but we could talk about this until we’re blue in the face but we will never agree about that. Or have you forgotten the reason for our divorce?”

“Actually, I don’t know,” Arthur snapped. “All I know is that one day, I woke up and my marriage was over. You didn’t leave me much choice.”

“You didn’t leave me much choice either with all your ultimatums.”

“I was trying to protect you, that witch almost killed you!”

“So if I had asked you to give up your company for me, you would have done so without any protestations.”

“You can’t compare my billion dollar company with your little detective agency,” Arthur said.

Merlin expected his magic to explode after that comment but he remained strangely calm and replied, “That little detective agency is very important to me. You have no idea what it’s like to go through life without having passion for what you do. But this: solving puzzles, helping people, actually using my magic for good, that’s what I want in life.”

“I never realized it meant that much to you,” Arthur said, sounded genuinely puzzled.

“That’s because you never listened. All you said was ‘Merlin, you have to stop this silly detective business’, and that was basically the end of the conversation. It didn’t even occur to you to listen to what I wanted. You were trying to control my entire life. I know you wanted to protect me, but you can’t just lock people up either.”

Arthur took some time to process that information and then continued talking. “After Mary attacked you and you were lying in a coma, my father talked to me. And he told me everything about my mother. How she was killed because of Nimueh and he warned me to not let the same thing happen to the person I loved. That’s why I wanted to keep you away from magic.”

“What... Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”

“Like I said, you didn’t give me much chance to tell you something. You left me, with Will who honestly was my friend too,” Arthur said.

Suddenly, all Merlin cared about was making Arthur understand why he had to leave. “I had to get out of here, Arthur. I was suffocating, you were basically treating me like a damstel in distress. I desperately needed to be independent, my whole world revolved around you. And then when I finally got something that was just for me, you tried to take it away from me. Trust me, it was hard being on my own: finding a flat, setting up my own business, paying my own bills. But I believe that it was worth it in the end, I needed to become my own person.”

“So it was worth losing me?”

Leave it to Arthur to miss the point of an emotional heart-to-heart. “No, of course it wasn’t. Nothing could ever be worth losing you, Arthur, and don’t you ever think that I don’t regret that. But the thing is that you accuse _me_ of running away but I’m not the one who was married again, only one year later. And then got married another two times.”

“Well, maybe you wanted to be independent, but I didn’t,” Arthur defended himself. “I liked being married, I liked having someone by my side. It was a mistake to marry Vivian because I probably wanted to make our relationship into something it really wasn’t.”

“What about Mithian and Sophia?”

“Mithian was like me, very rational. She walked away from me when she realized that our marriage would never succeed. She even had the figures to prove it. While Sophia always followed her heart, that’s why she told me immediately when she started having feelings for Tristan. It’s strange, I hate failure yet I had no problem signing all those divorce papers.”

“I filed ours when I saw you in the papers with some pretty blonde,” Merlin admitted.

Now Arthur was the one desperately trying to prove something. “Merlin, I would never cheat on you.”

“I guess that’s one of the downsides of being a private detective, you start to think that everyone is a cheater. God, Arthur, we really stuffed it all up.”

“Well, they say that the most important thing in a marriage is communication which can be quite difficult when you’re dealing with two obstinate idiots like us.”

Merlin laughed. “I can’t believe the mighty Arthur Pendragon referred to himself as an idiot.”

“I’ll even do better. You don’t need to win that bet anymore, the mighty Arthur Pendragon is admitting that he isn’t always right.”

“Wow, I’m genuinely impressed. The last time I remember you saying those words was when we were ten and you admitted that jumping out of a tree wasn’t such a good idea after all.”

“Our first hospital visit, I thought Uther was going to lynch us both.”

Merlin still felt chills when he remembered that confrontation. “He would have, if it wasn’t for Gwen’s protection. But this time, why don’t you let me protect you.”

“I’m not interested in being a damsel in distress either, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“What I’m thinking is that spending all this time back here, has made me realize that I was wrong to avoid my friends. Even after this case is over, I’m not going anywhere. Well, of course physically I’ll be going back to my own house, but I mean I don’t want to stop seeing Morgana, Gwaine, Elena, Lance, Gwen and Gaius.”

“Hmm, I see my name didn’t quite make the cut,” Arthur pointed out.

“Don’t push it Arthur, I can tell when you’re fishing for compliments. But I do think that if you can send Morgause an invitation to the Christmas party, I might merit one as well.”

“Fine, it’s a deal. Besides, I think it’s a general rule to spend the holidays with people you are engaged to.”

“I don’t think we’ll still be engaged in a year, my work rhythm is a bit higher than that.”

“Then let’s try to be friends again,” Arthur suggested, “because honestly we’re going to have to support each other through this. Fake or not, I’m sure Gwen and Morgana will be planning to make this the event of the season.”

“Look at us, acting all mature. And all it took was a crazy psychopath.”

“Well, it was a crazy psychopath that drove us apart in the first place, so it’s only fitting.”

*


	6. Chapter 6

“Honestly, Merlin, do you think it’s possible for you to take a flattering picture or should we just take the best of what we’ve got here?” Morgana asked.

“I warned you extensively that I’m not photogenic and I even offered to provide you with the only picture in which I look slightly like a human being,” Merlin said.

“You look twelve in that picture, that would make this engagement announcement very creepy,” Morgana pointed out.

“Well, don’t blame me when people start wondering why Arthur is marrying a gremlin.”

“They wouldn’t call you a gremlin,” Gwen assured him. “In fact, you look more like a cute hobbit.”

“Are we done here?” Arthur asked impatiently. “I do have some other work to do, postponing my prototype means a lot of rescheduling.”

“We need to make this wedding believable,” Gwen admonished him. “I’ve already instructed your PR team to plant stories about your glorious reunion with your ex-husband. Which will sound plausible enough, once the press discovers that Merlin is staying here for a while. Hopefully, we can also use this to take some attention away from your stabbing.”

“This really is a wonderful idea, I had no idea that Will could be so brilliant,” Morgana said, sounding very impressed. “Or that he was shagging Gwaine for that matter.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Arthur warned her. “I’ve already talked to Gwaine and it appears we are dealing with two lovesick puppies here.”

“Perhaps we could make this a double wedding,” Morgana suggested with glee.

“I’m afraid Gwaine is already busy playing the part of the unhappily married husband, trying to get rid of his wife,” Merlin said. “In fact, he’s meeting our target tonight to discuss the details.”

“While I’m glad the first stage of your plan is working out, let’s now focus on the second stage. Could you please try to resemble a normal person, Merlin?”

It took another thirty minutes until Morgana finally gave up and accepted Merlin’s picture.

*

Merlin was very impatient for Gwaine’s report, although he wisely didn’t get drunk this time. It was almost midnight when he finally returned to the castle. He nearly jumped on him when he came through the door.

“I’m relieved to see you, what happened?” he inquired immediately.

“Aren’t you eager? So far, everything is still going well, I should have gone into acting. Cedric was very understanding about my burdens and told me there would be another meeting to discuss the financial details. However, I’m not seeing how I can continue this without offering them a fake wife.”

“You won’t need to, there won’t be a next meeting,” Merlin informed him. “Tomorrow, Arthur and I will announce our engagement and from that moment on, their focus will be on that. If they contact you again, you can inform them that you’ve changed your mind. Besides, we can’t forget that you have your own Wikipedia page, we can’t rely on your charm much longer. They are probably planning to do a thorough screening of you before you get to meet the one who is really in charge. I just wanted to know as much as possible about their working method.”

Gwaine seemed to consider his answer for a moment. “Well, as far as I can tell Cedric only plays a minor role, he’s like a fancy receptionist and I don’t think he has any magic either. The next step is someone called Cendred, he’s the one who decides on a strategy. Still haven’t got a name for their big chief though.”

“I never really expected you to. But thanks to you, we at least have some information about who we’re dealing with. If I’m right, our mystery chief won’t be able to resist the big wedding. On the condition that I survive my magic lesson with Gaius tomorrow.”

“Is he trying to turn you into a proper Harry Potter?” Gwaine joked.

“Gosh, I don’t even know,” he responded. “I’m a bit worried about my lack of ability to throw around magical balls of fire.”

“Hmm, didn’t you once set fire to one of the bathrooms in the old mansion?”

Merlin sighed, “Yeah, when I was eight, I got a very lengthy lecture from Uther about that. He even threatened Gaius to kick us out. I will never understand how he and Gaius became BFF’s in the first place.”

“You know what they say, opposites attract.”

“Which reminds me that I still have to tell you that if you hurt my best friend, your balls will not be safe,” Merlin said seriously.

“I’m not planning on hurting anyone, Merlin. You know that’s not my style.”

“We never plan to hurt the people we love, but sometimes it seems to happen anyway.

*

Like he expected, Gaius was a very strict teacher but his efforts paid off.  After a full day of training, Merlin succeeded in shooting down one of Gaius’ targets. Sadly, using his magic for an offensive action was also very draining since he mostly used it in much more passive ways. Tracking down people, sensing emotions, the occasional forgery and so on.

Most of the wizards he encountered were con artists, thieves or jealous spouses. One of his first cases was the only one where he faced an actually powerful witch and that one ended with him being unconscious for a few weeks. But there wasn’t anyone else around who could help him either. Morgana’s magical abilities were limited to her visions, she had no active powers. Gaius possessed a little magical ability, but not enough for a magical face-off. In short, it was up to Merlin to save the day. He wondered what kind of training the wizard in Morgana’s vision had received. Probably a lot more than Merlin, since up till now most of Gaius’ trainings were meant to learn control.

Fortunately, what Merlin lacked in training, he made up for with his raw talent. On the few occasions he almost lost control of his magic, it scared him how powerful it could really be. The last time he came close to losing control was when he had that enormous fight with Arthur in his office. Although that could probably be explained by the fact that he hadn’t talked with Arthur in such a long time. Their conversation yesterday was the first time they had really talked in ages, in fact Merlin couldn’t recall a single decent conversation with Arthur since they split up.

He remembered coming to the Christmas Party, one year after their divorce. He was determined not to let his night be ruined by his troubles with Arthur. But seeing him with his brand new wife, hurt more than he could have ever imagined. Especially, since he hadn’t been able to move on so quickly, or moved on at all really. Even after all this time, he hadn’t even managed to change his last name which was pathetic really. But a small part of him just couldn’t let go, even when there were three Mrs. Pendragons running around.

As long as Arthur remained an abstract concept, just his stupid ex-husband, it felt a lot easier. But now he could feel all these old feelings rushing back to him and he realized that he wanted the exact same thing as Arthur, he wanted his friend back. Becoming enemies clearly hadn’t made them any happier, maybe friendship could restore some of that. The thing was that he and Arthur had never really been friends, except when they were little kids. Merlin first remembered crushing on Arthur when he was twelve or something. They got together when they were fifteen and were together for the next decade, aside from their short break-up when they were seventeen. During which period, Arthur started dating a girl from school and in retaliation Merlin slept with Gwaine. Which was a terrible idea of course, it took a long time for Arthur and Gwaine’s friendship to recover from the kitchen incident. But if Arthur and Gwaine’s friendship could survive nearly destroying a kitchen together, what was stopping Merlin and Arthur from becoming friends again?

Bless nostalgia and its ability to make you forget all the bad things, all that reminiscing had made Merlin quite sleepy and he fell into another blissful sleep.

*

The next morning, Gaius was still very determined to continue their training, but what he didn’t count on was Gwen’s superior will power. With the wedding officially set in motion, she was ready to take charge of Merlin and Arthur’s lives for the next two weeks. Merlin honestly couldn’t comprehend how it was possible to plan such a massive event in such a short time, but he had no doubts that she could pull it off.  On today’s agenda: finding the perfect wedding suit.

Morgana had taken the liberty of selecting fifteen fashionable suits, Merlin and Arthur were allowed to narrow it down to three choices and then she would make the final decision. Merlin suspected she was still not recovered from his not so fashionable outfit when she first visited him.

Nevertheless, it was bothering him a bit that with all the preparations for the wedding and the magic training, he didn’t really have much time left do some proper investigating. He hated feeling so stuck in a case, but on the other hand he really didn’t see what more he could find out with the three main suspects all so far out of reach. Poirot never had those issues, he always had the opportunity to interview his suspects until one of them finally slipped up. Sadly, there was no one left for him to interview, especially not in the castle.

Except, perhaps there was one more person he had forgotten. But he would have to leave the castle for that interview and to manage that he would need a distracted Morgana and a cooperative Arthur.

*

“I think Arthur looks rather dashing in that suit, and it’s part of Jean-Claude’s new collection. I’ve been after him for ages, this would be the perfect opportunity to finally sign him on as a client.”

“While I admire your keen business sense, Arthur looks horrible in blue. Red is totally his colour,” Merlin said.

Arthur looked amused and said, “I didn’t realize you finally managed to acquire such a fine fashion sense.

“Whatever. Morgana, you know I’m right about the blue one.”

“Hmm, you might have a point,” she agreed, but she didn’t sound entirely convinced. “I hadn’t really considered red until now, but maybe it’s time to put some variety into Arthur’s wedding suits. I’ll call Jean-Claude and we’ll continue this meeting in a few hours.”

While she pulled out her mobile, Arthur turned to Merlin and said, “I thought we were trying to be nicer to each other, why are you trying to put me in a red wedding suit?”

“I actually really do believe that red is your colour, but I needed something to occupy Morgana for the next few hours. I need you to smuggle me out of this castle.”

“Are you insane? We are both locked up in here until this case is over, there is no way we’re getting out. What’s so important that you feel the need to leave anyway?”

Merlin decided it was time to confide in Arthur, “I was thinking about my problem of not being able to interview any suspects or witnesses and that’s when I thought about your secretary.”

“My secretary? I don’t understand where you’re going with this. Talking to her would be  completely useless, my attacker was wearing a mask.”

“I know, but she might more know than she lets on,” Merlin speculated.

 Arthur remained doubtful, “I thought you were convinced that my staff wasn’t involved in this, I’m running the MI5 remember.”

“I don’t think she is an evil spy, but someone might have been working on her. Your stalker seemed to very aware of your schedule. Did you notice anything strange about her lately?”

Arthur replied, “Nothing in particular. Freya is a quiet girl, she’s definitely not one to gossip, I trust her.”

“I want to talk to her anyway. I’m starting to feel useless hanging around here.”

“You don’t have to tell me. We’ll go talk to Freya, it’s time for me to check up on the office anyway.”

“How do you propose we escape?” Merlin had been thinking about this question all morning and he hadn’t found an answer that would get him out of Morgana’s clutches.

“One of the downsides of having such a loyal staff, there is no one around to bribe. I’ll ask Percy, he has a bit of a thing for me,” Arthur said.

“Pfft, you think everyone has a thing for you.”

“They usually do, I’m quite irresistible. Besides, I don’t need magic to read people, they are an open book to me.”

“Oh yeah, what thought am I projecting right now?”

“You’re thinking: Arthur might be a prat, but he looks so dashing in every colour.”

“Prat.”

*

It turned out that Arthur was right about Percy, all it took was a couple of flirty looks and they were in a car driving out of the castle. He might be a prat, but he was a very attractive one. Merlin was never the jealous type, but it did use to annoy him to no end when people were flirting with his husband right in front of him. They could at least have found the decency to do it behind his back. Of course, Arthur just thought it was hilarious. He found it a lot less hilarious when people dared to flirt with Merlin, because Arthur was the jealous type. 

Or actually, he just didn’t like sharing things in general. His Christmas party might be filled with people who love Arthur, but Merlin was willing to bet that none of them actually knew him. They had no idea how much he really loved Morgana, how much he missed his father, and the things he was capable of to protect his friends.

Merlin had no idea how much Freya really knew about him, but there had to be a leak somewhere. And if there was a link between her and their mystery organization, they could use this opportunity to send them a message about their wedding.

“I can see you’re thinking really hard, you can just about see the wheels in your head turning,” Arthur said, when they reached their destination.

“This case has given me lots to think about, you lead a very complicated life. Tell me, how long has Freya been working for you?”

“Three years, I believe, although it feels like she’s been there forever. I can’t even remember my former secretary’s name. But you’ll be able to make your own observations in a minute.”

Arthur’s company was truly impressive. It looked like Merlin’s plan of an inconspicuous entrance was out of the window because the minute he stepped foot through the door, he was attacked by anxious staff members who were curious about what happened to their boss.

Merlin whispered to him, “I’ll go see Freya by myself, she’s more likely to talk to me without you there anyway.”

Arthur nodded and prepared himself to answer the many questions his people had for him. Meanwhile, Merlin took the elevator to the 15th floor. Entering the building accompanied by Arthur meant he was allowed to skip the full body search, thank god.

It had been years since Merlin last visited this office and the place looked even more luxurious than it did in his memories. Freya looked positively tiny behind her huge desk.

“I’m sorry to interrupt your work, my name is ...”

“Mr. Pendragon, of course,” Freya finished his sentence. “I’ve read the newspaper, you’re marrying Mr. Pendragon. Congratulations by the way,” she added quickly.

“Thank you, Freya. Can I call you Freya?”

“Of course, Mr. Pendragon,” she ensured him.

“Call me, Merlin, please,” he said politely.  “I was just wondering if you had some time to answer some questions about what happened here earlier.”

“Of course, I’ll do anything I can to help Mr. Pendragon. I still can’t believe such a terrible thing happened in here. But I’m afraid I really can’t give you a description of the man who stabbed him,” she said, sounding genuinely frustrated.

That was information he already had, but Merlin wasn’t here for a detailed description anyway. Nothing about this case had ever been that simple. “I understand and I’ve already read the police reports. It’s just sometimes after such a traumatic event, it can take a while for people to remember more details. Is there anything remarkable you noticed that day, anything at all?”

“I don’t think so, it really was an ordinary day at the office. There were no appointments scheduled for Mr. Pendragon so I was catching up with some paperwork. I honestly have no idea who that man was.”

“Tell me, has anyone ever approached you to gather intel on Arthur. Someone who told you he was a journalist or perhaps someone new in your life?” Merlin persisted.

“I swear to you, I would never betray Mr. Pendragon. I love working here and I would never do anything to risk that,” she said, sounding uncharacteristically determined.

She was telling the truth, she wouldn’t betray him. Arthur was right, talking to Freya was a waste of time. At least they got out of the castle for a while.

He decided it was time to finish up this conversation. “Thank you for answering my questions. I presume I will see you at the wedding.”

“Yes, I received an invitation from Gwen. Would you please thank Mr. Pendragon for inviting me, it’s very kind of him.”

“Since you’ve been working for him for the past three years, I’m sure that this is not his first wedding you’ll attend. But rest assured, it will be his final one.”

Freya gave him a little smile, “I’m sure it will be, Merlin. The two of you seem like the perfect match.”

She really was very nice.

*

Merlin might not have made any progress  with his investigation, but he was definitely making progress with his magic. He took down three targets in his next lesson and even managed to set a little fire, although he didn’t tell Gaius that was mostly unintentional.

Unfortunately, their brilliant escape didn’t go unnoticed by Morgana who shouted that they were irresponsible idiots who should be chaperoned at all times.  It looked like this was definitely going to be a red wedding, if they even made it to the wedding. There was only one possible remedy to cure Morgana’s anger: a good, old-fashioned party.

In fact, a party was exactly what they all needed. There was still some tension left between Arthur and Gaius and there was the whole Will-Gwaine situation, not the mention the fact that they were all in danger of being killed by some psychopath. But Merlin wasn’t going to get drunk this time, absolutely not.

He texted everyone to be in the living room at eight sharp. They must have thought there was more news about the investigation, because they all arrived exactly on time.

 “Hello, my dear friends. I asked the kitchen staff to set up this little party. I thought it would be nice to relax a bit.” He looked in Gwen and Morgana’s direction and continued, “Planning a wedding must be exhausting.”

“Nice charm offensive, Merlin,” Morgana said. “But I still haven’t forgiven you, which you will see when you discover what you’re wearing at your very public wedding.”

“Play nice, Morgana,” Gwen warned her. “I think this is a lovely idea, Merlin. With this case constantly hanging over our heads, it’s easy to forget how important it is that we talk to each other. Especially now that we are all completely reunited.”

“You’re such a wise woman, Gwen,” Will remarked. “Lance is a lucky chap to have married you, if I had been there first...”

“She’s a bit of out of your age range, William,” Lance said. “Besides, we wouldn’t want Gwaine to get jealous. We already know what a jealous Arthur is capable of.”

“Oh, shut it, Lancelot.”

“I hope you weren’t delusional enough to think that you would get away with this unnoticed,” Elena said. “A new couple in our group and here we were all counting on Merlin and Arthur to raise the romance factor.”

“Right, lovely evening. I have to go now and find some acceptable friends,” Will announced.

“You’re not going anywhere, William,” Arthur said. “You’ve been taunting Merlin and me for years. Payback is a bitch. Or are you a chicken?”

“I’m sorry, did someone bring out the Tardis and take us all back to primary school? It’s time to grow up Pendragons, all three of you,” Will said, and then pointed an accusing finger at Gwaine. “Why aren’t you saying anything? Your boyfriend is being attacked by hungry wolves here.”

“You seem to be handling everything very well, no need for me to get involved.”

While Will was busy listing all the reasons why Gwaine was a horrible boyfriend, Gaius approached Arthur. It seemed like Merlin’s plan was going very well.

By the end of the night, Arthur and Gaius had made amends, Morgana was no longer on the warpath, Will and Gwaine were officially dating and Merlin had slept with Arthur.

Ok, maybe Merlin’s plans didn’t always work out perfectly.

*


	7. Chapter 7

When Merlin did something stupid, like sleeping with his ex-husband for example, he usually talked with Will. But talking to his best friend wasn’t really an option in this case, he needed someone to give him rational advice and Will didn’t really fit that qualification.

The problem was that he didn’t really have any idea who else would qualify. Talking to Gaius or Gwen about his sex life was out of the question, Arthur would probably confide in Elena, Morgana was too scary, so that left him with Gwaine and Lance. In the end he went with Gwaine, he was the expert on unadvised, drunken hook-ups after all.

He went to Gwaine’s room and fortunately found him there alone.

“Gwaine, I really need to talk to you. I did something stupid.”

Gwaine smiled, “Ah, my speciality. Sit down and tell uncle Gwaine all about it.”

“I slept with Arthur last night.”

Merlin had no idea that it was still possible to shock Gwaine, after all there was very little in life that he hadn’t done already.

“Well, there go my chances of winning,” Gwaine said.

“Winning what exactly?” Merlin asked, wondering why Gwaine sounded almost disappointed.

“Oh, there was a small competition,” he said nonchalantly.

“You’re not winning or losing anything, because you can’t tell this to a living soul, understand. Swear it to me,” he demanded.

“I promise, darling. I can be very discreet.”

“Good, because I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do about this. I’m supposed to protect Arthur and right now I don’t even know if I can ever face him again.”

“Ok, you are going to have to give me a little context here. What exactly happened last night? The last time I saw you, you didn’t even appear to be that drunk.”

“After you left with Will, the rest of us decided to raid the liquor cabinet and Arthur found this amazing whiskey which we all just had to try. I really should have known better, whiskey has never been my friend. After a while, Morgana and Elena went to their room and _somehow_ Arthur and I ended up kissing.”

“Oh my god, you had sex in the living room?” Gwaine looked scandalized.

“Of course not, we went back to Arthur’s room, which is where I woke up this morning. Alone.”

“So Arthur did a runner,” Gwaine concluded.

“I don’t blame him, I make it a mission in my life to avoid embarrassing moments as much as possible.”

“You are going to have to confront each other sometime. Any idea what you’re going to say?”

“None whatsoever,” Merlin replied. Right now, all he wanted was to climb back into bed and stay there for a week.

“Merlin, serious question: is there any part of you that wants to get back together with Arthur?”

“I don’t know, I’ve spent the last seven years trying to get over him and now that he’s back in my life... I have no idea what I want anymore.”

“Listen, I don’t think you need to make any big decisions right now. You already have enough on your plate, with this whole murder case and all. But you do have to talk to Arthur if you two are going to play the roles of the happily engaged couple.”

“You’re right, I’m going to find him right now and deal with this.”

*

Merlin was determined to talk to Arthur, but it seemed like Arthur was just as determined not to talk to him. There wasn’t a trace of him anywhere in the castle, but he knew that there was no way he left the place. Not after Morgana’s threats, he was smarter than that.  
After searching through the garden, there was only one place left for him to check: Arthur’s favourite hiding place.

Merlin climbed the stairs, which he remembered being a lot easier. Apparently some things never really changed because there was Arthur, sitting in his treehouse.

“I think it’s time for you to find a new brooding place, maybe someplace where you don’t need to climb these incredibly narrow stairs.”

“What can I say, I have a tendency to cling to the past.”

“Speaking about the past, we really need to talk about what happened last night,” Merlin started saying, but Arthur cut him short.

“Let’s not. Let’s just forget this ever happened,” he said.

“What? We can’t just ignore that we slept together.”

“Why not? It was just sex, lots of drunk people have sex with their ex, there are books about it and everything. In our case, it just happened a bit later.”

“If that’s what you really want... But there is one thing you should know, I don’t make it a habit of sleeping with someone when I’m drunk. You have every right to write this off as a one-off, but what happened last night wasn’t an accident for me. Trust me, I didn’t accidentally fall on your dick.”

Arthur laughed, “I don’t know why I never realized how much of a poet you are, all these hidden talents of yours keep showing up.”

“You have another two weeks to discover all kinds of things about me, because if we want to pull off this wedding without a hitch, we’re going to have to be able to interact normally with each other. Do you think you can do that, or should we just cut our losses?”

“Of course, I know how important this is. And I want to go back to my normal life, my company isn’t going to run itself.”

“I’m sure your Merlin-free life can’t wait for you to get back to it either,” Merlin scoffed.

 “I thought you weren’t going anywhere after this,” Arthur reminded him.

“I’m not and don’t you forget it. Have fun brooding, but don’t forget we have to decide on the guest list today, which is just about the most important thing about planning this wedding.”

*

Deciding on the guest list turned out to be tons of work. On the bright side, it was a nice distraction for Merlin and Arthur who were trying their best to behave as normal as possible.

At the moment, Merlin didn’t really have the time to worry about their personal troubles anyway. He was putting all his focus into keeping Arthur alive. They needed to make sure they invited the right people to this thing. To cover all their bases, Leon had made a list with potential security risks, Arthur had made a list with any vindictive girlfriends and boyfriends he could think of, while Merlin was trying to invite as many wizards as he possibly could. Hopefully by making this wedding as public as possible, their mysterious stalker would show up. Of course, they were taking a huge risk by inviting all these potential lunatics but Merlin truly believed it was the only way to finally finish this. Arthur wasn’t prepared to be locked up in this castle for the rest of his life.

To ensure he was able to stop Arthur’s stalker, he kept up his  magic lessons with Gaius and his efforts paid off, because he kept improving. In fact, he was more in tune with his magic than he had been in years. He was going to really miss using it this much, but the risks connected to it were just too huge.

*

Morgana was way too excited when she discovered her brother and Merlin were going to be featured on the frontpage of Camelot News. Apparently it was still a huge deal when Arthur Pendragon decided to get married, even it was his fifth attempt.

Gwen didn’t share Morgana’s enthusiasm, there was a reason she had limited Merlin’s contact with the press during their marriage. To say that Merlin was not good at dealing with journalists, was an understatement. He was plain horrible. Either he overshared or he had the opposite problem and couldn’t get a word out.

He was so nervous when he sat down for their interview that he accidentally knocked over the lamp next to him. And he presumed it was an expensive one, from the dirty look he received from the housekeeper when she cleaned up his mess. Sitting next to him, his fiancé looked like he didn’t have a care in the world, things like this always came effortless to Arthur.

The journalist introduced herself and the interview could begin in earnest.

“First of all, I would like to say it is an honour to talk to you both. I imagine there was a lot of interest for an exclusive interview like this. Perhaps we could start with the question burning on everyone’s mind, is the fifth time the charm?”

Merlin personally thought that was a bit rude, but Arthur gave Alexis an earnest smile.

“Well, Alexis, sometimes you have to take a lot of wrong turns to discover you were on the right path all along,” he answered.

Merlin had to make an effort not to roll his eyes. Arthur and his empty platitudes, now that was a match made in heaven. But Gwen had warned him extensively to say as little as possible, so it was up to Arthur to be creative.

Alexis didn’t seem that impressed and moved on to her next question. “Spoken like a man in love, why don’t you tell us how this engagement happened? After all, it’s only been a few months since you divorced Sophia.”

“It’s only been a few months since the paperwork was finished, but obviously things between Sophia and me have been over for quite a long time. After she fell love in Tristan and ended things, I did some soul searching of my own. It became obvious to me that the reason my previous three marriages didn’t work out, was because I never really got over my first one. It turns out you really can’t fight true love.”

He gave Merlin a sickly sweet smile and Merlin tried to return it as best as he could. Too bad he wasn’t as good as Arthur at faking his emotions, because he was sure he came off looking like a creepy serial killer.

“Of course, I usually ask the happy couple how they met. But in your case that was a long time ago, wasn’t it?”

That was one of the questions that Gwen had assigned to Merlin. “Actually, we’ve known each other our entire lives. Arthur’s father, the late Uther Pendragon, was best friends with Gaius, my foster father. Uther was generous enough to open his home for us and we moved in when I was five years old.”

 She addressed Merlin again and asked, “I’m aware this is a very sensitive question, but what lead to you being in the care of Gaius?”

“My father left before I was born and my mother couldn’t cope with her grief. That’s why she left me in Gaius’ care who was a wonderful father to me.”

“Childhood sweethearts, that’s rather lovely. Although there were some rough patches right?”

Arthur took back the reigns and answered, “We had a short breakup when we were seventeen, but that only confirmed to us how important our relationship was to us. That’s the reason why we married so young. Why wait when you’ve found that perfect someone?”

“Sadly, life is rarely perfect, how would you describe the events leading up to your divorce?”

Arthur prepared to say his Gwen-approved answer but Merlin interrupted him. “Actually, it’s hard to answer a question when there really isn’t an answer. I think we’ve both come to the conclusion that whatever the reason was for our separation, all it did was make us into the far more mature Merlin and Arthur we are today. And this time, we have no intention of splitting up again, because we’ve learned that being apart never made us any happier."

Arthur had trouble keeping his face even at Merlin’s answer but Alexis looked impressed and said, “That was a genuinely lovely answer, Merlin, and I agree with you. I have no doubts that this one will stick.”

She asked them another couple of lowball questions and before Merlin realized it, his torture was officially over. He thought it went rather well and Gwen seemed very proud of him. Arthur’s face had thunderclouds written all over it and the minute Alexis was out of their vision, he pulled Merlin to the side.

“What on earth were you doing back there? Improvising your answers like that, there’s a reason Gwen spent an hour briefing you on what to say,” Arthur said angrily.

For once, Merlin really didn’t understand why Arthur felt so angry and said, “But she loved my answer, and I’m sure that if you had given her Gwen’s answer this interview would have been a lot longer. Remember, the longer an interview, the more time there is for me to say something stupid.”

“Don’t you understand, you did say something stupid. We were supposed to sound convincing enough to make this whole marriage scam sound real enough. But you weren’t supposed to sound like you’re actually in love with me.”

Merlin felt even more confused and asked, “That’s what is bothering you, that I sounded too in love with you?”

“Yes, because when this whole thing is over, I’m the one who is going to be left to deal with the fallout. I don’t want the press to write how heartless I treated poor, besotted Merlin.”

“Would you please relax, we’ve already agreed that I’m the one who is going to take full responsibility for our fake divorce, if it even comes to that.”

Unfortunately, Arthur was like a dog with a bone and continued, “Well, you never took responsibility for our last one. So, what’s stopping you from doing it again?”

“That’s what you honestly think, isn’t it? That I should put all the blame on my shoulders and that you’re just some poor, hapless victim. Perhaps it’s time for your to do some real soul searching, Arthur. Or maybe you should buy back your memory, have you forgotten the reason for our first break-up? That you got bored with me and wanted to see what other fish there were in the sea?”

“I apologized for that a million times and besides clearly you had no problem letting Gwaine in your pants.”

“And that’s the reason you wanted me back, isn’t it? Because even when you don’t want me anymore, you don’t want anyone else to have me either.”

“That’s not true, I wanted you back because I loved you,” Arthur protested.

Merlin thought this was the perfect time to get something off his chest, that had been bothering him for ages. “Then why didn’t you ever come after me when I left this place? You’re acting like I moved to the other side of the world, when in reality I stayed in the hotel a few streets from here. Let me tell you, you were too proud. Just like you were too proud to admit defeat to one of your best friends and that’s why you wanted me back when I slept with Gwaine.”

“I honestly don’t understand how these things get in your head,” Arthur muttered, “you couldn’t be more wrong.”

“I’m always wrong, aren’t I. I was wrong about Mary, she wasn’t some harmless ex-wife trying to taunt her cheating husband a little. She wanted to kill him. I thought we were going to be together forever, and once again I was wrong. But you were probably right when you called me a useless idiot who should stay inside these four walls.”

“I didn’t mean that, I was just scared of losing you.”

“But that’s the problem, Arthur, you are always worrying about what you could lose but you’re never content with what you have.”

Merlin realized they could fight for hours over this and decided it was time to put a stop to it. This was not the time for petty fights. “I’m sorry, we should probably stop talking about this, it’s too late anyway. If we’re trying to become friends again, it’s probably best if we leave all this useless shit behind us.”

Arthur shook his head and said, “No, I’m glad you told me. But I do think you’re wrong about one thing, it’s never too late to discuss something this important.”

*

Arthur went back to ignoring him after their confrontation and Merlin was strangely fine with that. They had proven that spending too much time together made everything much more complicated. So for the rest of the time Merlin spent here, he would live up to his very recent New Year’s Resolutions. He would not have a sip of alcohol, he certainly wasn’t sleeping with Arthur again and he was going to be the best detective he could possibly be.

Merlin wasn’t planning on giving up on rebuilding their friendship but for that to happen, it was vital he kept Arthur alive first.

Before he knew it, there was only one week left till the wedding and he was starting to grow more and more anxious. He just wished he had more information about who he was dealing with it, because how do you defeat an invisible enemy? The whole situation was starting to show some uncanny resemblances to the Mary case. He didn’t have any idea about who he was dealing with then either. The last thing he wanted, was a repeat of that case. But it seemed inevitable that someone was going to get hurt. All he had to do, was to make sure that it wasn’t Arthur.

*

Merlin went off to find Elena because he really had an urge to talk with someone since he hadn’t seen much of his best friend these past few days. Understandable, since he was still in the honeymoon phase of his relationship. Merlin didn’t want to ruin his fun, it was nice to see Will so happy. At least some good came out of this horrible situation.

The only interaction he had these days was with Gaius and Gwen, and they were driving him insane with their constant orders. He loved them both very much, but not when they were planning something. And a little part of him couldn’t help but be curious if Arthur had told Elena that they slept together. With the way Arthur was acting lately, he was starting to have doubts if he was talking to anyone at all. He had become increasingly withdrawn, not that he was ever very open to begin with. But lately, he was starting to creep him out a little. He didn’t say a word during their latest wedding-related meeting, not even when Morgana started talking about having a pink wedding.

Elena was working on her laptop in the living room, Merlin had a short flashback to what Arthur and he were up to last time he was in here. He was glad Elena was sitting on the smaller couch.

“Busy working?” he asked.

“Yes, one of my clients has been a nightmare about this whole ordeal,” she explained. “I mean, I understand that prison is no fun holiday but he was sent there for life, it’s not like one week is going to matter.”

“How did you end up dealing with all those dangerous criminals?”

“I have no idea, as you know I’m a very nice girl. It must be the danger that speaks to us,” she teased.

“Speak for yourself, I hate the danger factor. I miss my quiet cases, where the only life on the line is a spoiled dog.”

“Poor thing, it’s getting to you isn’t it? If it’s any comfort, Arthur is pretty much feeling the same way. He’s so down lately. Of course it’s never fun to find out that someone wants to kill you, but it seems like it’s really getting to him.”

“Hmm, any other reason why he could be so down?” Merlin inquired innocently.

“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me? Seriously, Merlin, I hope your interrogation skills are usually more up to par, or maybe I just found out why this investigation is dragging on.”

“Rude much. And I don’t interrogate my friends, I was just making an innocent inquiry.”

“No, you weren’t. You were dying to know if I knew that you and Arthur got down and dirty,” she said triumphantly.

Merlin did his best to look condescending, “Down and dirty, really? And I didn’t come here to gossip, I’m genuinely curious how Arthur is doing.”

“I know. Even though you’re much better at concealing your feelings, I can still tell how much you care. But talking to him wouldn’t help much right now, he’s living in his own little Arthur-world.”

“I’m starting to think he went there with a one-way ticket.”

“He just needs his brooding time,” Elena tried to assure him, “and he loves keeping the mystery alive.

“That’s exactly my problem with him. I never know what he is thinking. A mysterious Mr. Darcy may sound fun on paper, but I prefer to have one that actually talks to me.”

“I know, but I think he really is trying. And without betraying his confidence, he still has a lot of Merlin feelings to brood about.”

“Ever since we slept together, I can’t stop thinking about him,” Merlin confessed. “Being here, the magic lessons, planning our bloody wedding, it’s like I can never escape him.”

“Perhaps that’s because you have finally stopped running,” Elena said.

“I’ve told Arthur time and time again that I’m not leaving. I don’t want to lose him, Elena. But I’m afraid that by sleeping together, we’ve stuffed it all up again. Sex is usually not the beginning of a good friendship.”

She sighed, “One thing is for sure, boys are idiots. It was probably inevitable that you two ended up in bed together, with all that leftover sexual tension you hadn’t dealt with. You can recover from this, you’re just going to have to work for it.”

“Now you’re starting to sound like you’re talking to one of your clients.”

“You’re not nearly dangerous enough to be one of my clients.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I could set this whole room on fire, just by blinking. I’m a well-trained wizard, it’s not smart to underestimate me.”

She gave him a hug and said, “I promise I will never underestimate you again, but the same goes for you. You should stop worrying so much, you’ll get the job done, I’m completely confident about that.”

“It was nice to talk to you, I’m starting to understand why you’re Arthur’s sole confidant.”

“I’m very wise, it’s true. But just because Arthur likes to burden me with his troubles, doesn’t mean that I’m the only one who he wants to talk to.”

“Well, we’ll see when he actually starts talking again. But I’m not counting on receiving more than a few shrugs until this whole fake wedding is over.”

*

For once, Merlin was completely right. Arthur started living in his office again and didn’t say much to anyone, right until the night before their wedding. That’s when Gwaine suggested they had a celebratory dinner.

“This is a fake wedding to catch a killer, there’s not really much to celebrate,” Merlin said. “And the last thing we need is bringing alcohol into the equation.”

“It will a completely alcohol free dinner, I promise. I know how much effect alcohol can have on some of us.” Arthur threw a suspicious look at Merlin following that comment. “I realize how important tomorrow is, but I still think a family dinner would be good for us. Who knows when the next time will be, when we’ll have one. After this is over, Arthur will probably live in his office building for the next year.”

“If we’re a family, then I really hope that you and Will are cousins twice removed,” Morgana said.

“We’re a new kind of family,” Gwaine explained. “But still the kind of family that supports each other and that’s why we’re doing this. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” they all said in unison.

“Wow, that was kind of hot,” Will added.

It was things like this that made Merlin realize what an idiot he was for spending so little time with his friends. Whatever happened tomorrow, he would never regret these weeks in the castle. If he even had a chance to regret anything of course.


	8. Chapter 8

It was the morning of their fake wedding and Arthur looked surprised to see Merlin standing in front him.

“I wasn’t expecting you,” he said hesitantly.

“I know and I realize you’re still ignoring me after our latest talk turned into this huge blow-out fight, but I couldn’t stay away. It’s our wedding day, fake or not. I couldn’t help remembering our first one,” Merlin said fondly.

“Me too. This will sound like a total cliché but it really was one of the happiest days of my life,” Arthur admitted.

“Well, there is a reason they’re called clichés, cause they’re always true.”

“A true fountain of wisdom you are,” Arthur said.

“Let me remind you of another fact, remember our bet? I’ve changed my mind about my prize.”

“I’ve already admitted that I was wrong, so I guess that’s fair,” Arthur agreed.

“When this whole thing is over, I want you to tell me how you feel about me,” Merlin told him.

“Can I change my prize as well?”

“Sure. The stakes of the bet were never that even anyway. What do you want?”

“Oh, I’ll let you know when the time is right. Are you sure about your own prize?”

“Trust me, I know exactly what I want,” Merlin smiled.

“That’s a coincidence, same goes for me. Seems like we’re finally on the right track.”

“If the trip to the altar is part of our track, I promise I’ll try not to trip.”

Arthur laughed, “Good luck, Merlin,  I really hope this is the end of this case.”

“Me too.”

Merlin made it back into his room in time for the fitting of his suit. Apparently Morgana loved him more than he thought, because she had gone for a traditional black suit after all. Hopefully it wouldn’t have to double as a funeral suit. As a last test of his powers, he set fire to the ugly vase on his bedside table, he had always hated that thing. Right, he was as ready as he was ever going to be, time to officially start this day.

*

He was pleasantly surprised to see so many familiar faces in the garden, it looked like they had quite a turn out on such short notice. He even spotted Mrs. Tyler from the Christmas party. He also recognized some of the clientele of The Tavern which meant the magical community was definitely represented.

He was really starting to get nervous, someone standing here was the culprit he had been looking for this entire time. Merlin hoped it would calm his nerves to talk to someone who didn’t feel very threatening so he was glad when Freya was the first to approach him. She looked marvellous in her dress.

“Merlin, congratulations on your wedding, the castle looks amazing. Can I introduce you to my boyfriend, Mordred Jones?”

Merlin hadn’t even noticed the man standing next to Freya. On closer inspection, the suit he was wearing made him look like a teenager but they made an adorable pair.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Pendragon. Freya has told me so much about you,” Freya’s boyfriend told him.

“I’m taking that as a compliment,” Merlin laughed nervously.

“You should, trust me, I was really looking forward to meeting you in person,” Mordred said a bit too intensely according to Merlin.

His magic told him that he wasn’t lying, in fact Mordred seemed very interested in talking to him. Why was Freya’s boyfriend showing so much interest in him?

Unless of course he wasn’t here to support his girlfriend at the wedding of her boss, but he had his own business to deal with. What was the saying again? A wolf in sheep’s clothing. Mordred certainly looked like very innocent, but his magic was telling a different story.

He smiled at Freya and said, “I’m sorry, but could I borrow your lovely boyfriend for a minute? I just have a minor issue that I can’t sort out by myself.”

“Of course,” Mordred said, never losing his intense glare. “I’ll be happy to help”.

Oh, he was definitely evil, it was coming off him in waves now.

He took Mordred to one of the dining rooms, he was sure Arthur wouldn’t mind if that one got destroyed.

“So Mordred, are you a big fan of weddings or do you have some personal interest in this one?” he asked.

“I’m here to support Freya of course, she’s an amazing girl. I’m such a lucky man that I happened to bump into her three months ago. Such a short time, but she has taught me so many things.”

“I’m sure she has, like Arthur’s schedule, that must have been some interesting literature. Tell me, how long have you been using your magic on her?” Merlin asked accusingly.

Mordred still hadn’t lost the innocent look on his face. “Excuse me? Why would I use magic on my own girlfriend? That would be quite evil of me, wouldn’t it.”

Merlin was starting to get fed up with Mordred’s fake innocent act and said, “Oh, stop it. You’re not fooling anyone, your magic is basically screaming ‘I’m the villain’. Which is probably the reason that this is our first meeting.”

“I have to say that I’m very fond of magic, but that is one of the few drawbacks. The whole sensing emotions thing is only fun when it’s to your own advantage.”

“Is that the reason you seem to be living a secret identity? Or do you keep your evil agency a secret for tax reasons?”

“Ah, right my agency. I know you, or should I say your little spies, have already met Cedric and Edwin, but I can assure you that they are not proper representatives of what my agency is capable of.”

“I’m curious how someone as secretive as you, ended up accepting such a high-profile case. A man like Arthur Pendragon is always going to grab headlines.”

It seemed like Mordred was starting to enjoy himself and he explained, “I do prefer to stay in the shadows, and a dead billionaire attracts a lot of attention. Actually, I prefer the more common cases: an annoying boss, a cheating husband, just some small troubles I can solve. So when Agravaine approached me to solve his nephew problem, the only reason I accepted was you.”

“Me?” Merlin repeated confused.

“I knew there was no chance you wouldn’t get caught up in a case involving Arthur Pendragon. Rest assured, I’m usually much more efficient. But I had to find ways to drag this one out a bit longer. Food poisoning, a small car accident, I thought the rock was a nice touch.”

“So the failed stabbing wasn’t a sign of incompetence,” Merlin concluded.

“Oh no, I just needed Morgana to panic a bit more, I was excited to see what she would come up with to save her little brother. Moving you into the castle was quite unexpected, but not a bad idea at all, I must admit.”

Merlin was starting to get tired of Mordred’s arrogance and chided, “Well, I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, while we were torturing ourselves”

“There is no need to make things so personal, it certainly wasn’t personal to me,” Mordred said with a creepy grin that put Merlin’s in perspective.

“Then why do you keep saying that you took on this case because of me.”

“I admire your detective skills, Merlin, but mostly this is about your magic. You see, I’ve been looking for a partner for my company but it isn’t easy to find a powerful wizard or witch these days. I was fortunate enough to be raised by the druids, but I realize most people aren’t as lucky. Like you were raised by Gaius Roberts, completely unsuitable for someone with your power.”

“Someone like me? Listen, I don’t know in what kind of cult you grew up but I had a great childhood and my magic has always been a part of that.”

Mordred’s face turned darker. “A part? It should have been the most important thing, you’ve been brainwashed by the Pendragons. And that’s what I’m offering you now, to finally embrace your magic completely.”

“So basically you’ve been courting me with a magical mystery, how touching. But I’m afraid I’ll have to decline the job, I prefer to hunt psychopaths, not work for them.”

“I was afraid that you were going to say that, but truthfully I’m not really offering you anything. I’ve always been convinced that life is about choices and the one you are going to make is between Arthur and yourself.”

“What are you saying?”

“It’s simple really, either you come work with me or I’ll have to kill poor Arthur,” Mordred clarified.

“You really are a psychopath,” Merlin spitted out.

“I’m taking a huge risk here, I’m basically betraying a client, not good for my reputation. You should be flattered. Of course, I’m not planning on letting Agravaine talk much longer. I thought he could be your first job, fitting isn’t it?”

Merlin had to fight himself to not just punch him. “I won’t let you kill Arthur, but I’m not joining your cult either.”

“I can see that listening might be an issue for you but this is one those times where you really can’t have it all. Either you join me, or Arthur is gone.”

“There is a third option you haven’t explored yet, I could just get rid of you. How do you call it, solving my issues.”

Mordred scoffed, “I’m sure that Gaius has been hard at work, training you for the big day. But I’m afraid you can’t compete with me just yet. Or are you that tired from all that investigating that you’re longing for another coma.”

“How do you even know about that?”

“You don’t think I just randomly picked you, I’ve been following you for a long time. Ever since you managed to beat one of the most powerful druids. But I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you, I’m much stronger than Mary. Because unlike her or yourself, I have always put my magic first and not those silly little relationships people fancy having. Although, Freya was entertaining, Arthur’s taste in secretaries is flawless.”

“You better leave that poor girl alone,” Merlin threatened him.

“Or what? I’m hearing a lot of threats, but you’re not actually doing anything threatening. Go ahead, do your best. But if I kill you, I’ll kill your beloved fiancé as well. At least, Agravaine will get what he wants.”

“What about Morgana? Are you going to start killing the entire wedding party?”

“I was never going to kill Morgana, she has always been my designed scapegoat. Poor Morgana, driven insane by her visions, she killed her own brother. It’s a tragedy, but then again there seems to be a lot of tragedy in the Pendragon family. Now it’s time for you to quit stalling and make up your mind. As much as I enjoy chatting with you, I don’t have all day.”

“I can’t let you kill Arthur,” Merlin said, trying not to sound as desperate as he really felt.

“Well then, seems you have made up your mind. It’s good to know where you stand.”

“I agree, which is why I can’t let you leave this room. If I go with you, this will never be over. You will always use Arthur and my friends as a threat, and I love them too much to let that happen.”

Mordred looked disappointed. “Ah, sentimentality, it ruins great men. I think I made a mistake, maybe you were never the one I was looking for. Which brings us to quite an awkward stand-off. I really wasn’t planning on killing you when I came here, Merlin. I had high hopes for our future.”

“We have no future, I don’t need Morgana’s visions to know that. ”

“Does this mean we have a magical duel? How exciting.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary, I plan on making this quick,” Merlin said confidently, his magic was coming to the surface.

“It’s good to have confidence, but don’t get carried away too much. I’ve already told you that you can’t beat me. What are you going to do?  Start a little fire?” he mocked.

“No, I was actually planning on doing this.”

Merlin felt his magic run through him, it was time to give Mordred a taste of his own medicine.

“That’s my trick, you must have nicked that from Morgana. But don’t worry, two can play that game,” Mordred said, while preparing his own attack. “I have to say it’s fun to finally encounter someone who can play along.”

“Do you know how I killed Mary?” Merlin asked him, trying to stall him a bit longer. “I stabbed her, ironic isn’t it? All that magic and in the end it was a knife that killed her. Do you know where we are standing now, well I guess that’s part of the home advantage. This was Uther’s favourite dining room and it’s where he kept his knife collection. I’ve been shooting targets down for weeks, but I guess that in the end it’s not my thing. I’m more a fan of the old-fashioned way.”

“Are you planning to knife me, seriously?” Mordred obviously wasn’t planning on listening to Merlin much longer and he made a movement to sent his magic right through Merlin’s heart.

“Just distracting you,” Merlin said and that’s when he blinked his eyes and set Mordred on fire.

*

Of course, it was never Merlin’s plan to actually kill Mordred. Even if it was self-defence, he never wanted to have another life on his conscience again. Merlin made sure that Mordred still had a pulse, when he called for help. Fortunately, Gwen literally thought about everything and there were already paramedics present and they were joined by Arthur’s security team.

It seemed that Mordred’s magic could protect him against most harm, he was unconscious but in no way as burned as he should be. It felt weird seeing him lying there, he looked just as harmless as he first did when Merlin saw him.

Which was a while ago, he suddenly realized. Arthur and the rest must have been wondering what happened to him. It was time to bring them the good news, Mordred wouldn’t be a problem any longer and Arthur didn’t have to marry Merlin. All good news, except for the fact that Arthur still had a murderous uncle running around, but one thing at a time.

*

Merlin went back to the garden where he spotted Arthur standing under Kilgharrah, he raced off to tell him the good news.

He couldn’t suppress his enthusiasm, even if several of Arthur’s esteemed guests were staring at them. “Arthur, I did it. I finally caught him, it was Freya’s boyfriend, Mordred. He’s our criminal mastermind and he confessed that he was hired by Agravaine. But with the police now having all the pieces of the puzzle, hopefully he will be apprehended soon. And the magical taskforce was alerted for Mordred so that should take care of him.”

“Wow, Merlin, that is brilliant news,” Arthur said and he hugged Merlin tightly. Merlin realized he had never really appreciated how good Arthur was giving at hugs. He told himself it wouldn’t be very proper to climb him like a tree.

Arthur said, “I don’t know if I said this before, but thank you. I’d probably be a pile of ashes at this moment, if it wasn’t for you.”

“Ironic, since I kind of set Mordred on fire. I decided it was the perfect time to use what according to Uther was my most dangerous asset. I’ll be blinking very carefully from now on,” he grinned.

“Ok, this may sound weird, but in a way I’m glad this all happened. Because if it wasn’t for Agravaine and Mordred, we wouldn’t be here. Obviously, there would be no fake wedding, but what I mean..”

“I know what you mean, Arthur.”

“Do you, really?”

“I’m a wizard, remember. I know all sorts of things. Like for instance, when I didn’t just have a magical face-off with a supervillain, we need to have a serious talk.”

“Right, that really needs to happen. Preferably soon.”

“Very soon but maybe it would be a good idea to call off this wedding first. I think people are starting to wonder why we’re busy talking here, when they are all dressed up for a wedding.”

“I’ll text Gwen immediately, she’ll take care of the formalities. But I do owe our guests an apology, so if you’ll excuse me,” Arthur said but he seemed reluctant to leave Merlin.

“You can’t accuse Arthur Pendragon of not acting like a perfect host at all times,” Merlin encouraged him.

“Thanks, but I don’t think they’ll mind anyway. After a while, weddings tend to get boring, especially when the groom never seems to change.”

*

The guests were of course shocked to discover that the wedding wasn’t happening after all. But after a rousing speech from Arthur, they were applauding Merlin and Arthur’s brave decision to share their love for each other without a piece of paper. How Arthur managed to convince people attending a wedding of the complete uselessness of marriage, was beyond Merlin.

The magical taskforce was there very quickly to pick up Mordred, it wasn’t likely that he would ever be solving anyone’s problems again. Leon took it upon himself to work with the police to get Agravaine behind bars, with any luck they could get justice for his wife as well.

It seemed with most of their problems finally behind them, it was finally time for Merlin and Arthur  to clean up the mess they had made of their relationship all these years.

*


	9. Chapter 9

The very first time Merlin met Arthur, he didn’t like him very much. But no child would like the boy who stole his favourite toy. Merlin’s toy wand was the only gift he ever received from his mother. He didn’t remember her very well, but he loved his wand and he was devastated when Arthur broke it. But then Arthur told him that his daddy was very rich and he would buy Merlin a hundred new wands and would he please stop crying?

He was properly punished anyway, Uther gave him a stern talking to about stealing other people’s things and Morgana slapped him. Arthur accused his sister of liking the new boy better than him and Morgana just grinned.

Merlin had tons of first times with Arthur. The first time they kissed, the first time Merlin gave Arthur a very clumsy blow job, the first time Arthur told Merlin he loved him, the first time Merlin proposed.

He remembered when Arthur told him he bought Merlin a castle with his brand new millions.

Merlin had always known that Arthur was brilliant, but no one expected him to rise to the top that quickly. Arthur had to show Merlin the deed before he finally believed him. Elena and Morgana thought it was the best romantic gesture ever and Will warned him to run far away from the crazy man. That’s when Merlin proposed, not because of the castle of course, but because he could have never imagined loving anyone more.

Merlin thought that he and Arthur had finally run out of first times but they just had another one: the first time Merlin saved Arthur’s life. Even if this one was less enjoyable than some of the others and not to be repeated, it was just as significant.

He looked at Arthur grinning with their friends about the successful ending of this investigation and finally understood that as good as he was at investigating other people’s motives, he was terrible at investigating his own.

*

“I’m so proud of you, little Merlin,” Will told him. “I always knew you could do it, you have a brilliant sidekick after all. But it’s never easy to wrap things up.”

“Your approval means the world to me. Although you have been a terrible sidekick lately,” Merlin pointed out.

“I know, I’ve been neglecting you. And it seems like I missed quite a few developments with our favourite blonde prat.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Merlin huffed.

“Please, like I haven’t noticed that you two stopped fighting right after the night we all got drunk. You got laid, Merlin,” Will revealed and he looked genuinely proud.

“Have you talked to Elena recently or do you have a creepy radar?”

“Elena knew about this. I’m insulted, frankly. Elena is Arthur’s best friend, I’m yours. We have to keep the balance in the universe right. Can you imagine Arthur coming up to me and talk about his secret heartbreak?”

“I really can’t but don’t worry, he does love you in his own special Arthur way.”

“Well, let’s just say that I’m glad I don’t have to attend his funeral any time soon. What are you going to do now? With this whole fake wedding thing being a bust.”

“We have decided to be friends, it’s all very mature. But that’s not really what I want,” Merlin confided in him.

“Of course not. You don’t go to all that trouble for a ‘friend’.”

“Hey, that’s not fair. If your life was on the line, I would do anything I could to save you. Even marry you,” Merlin shuddered.

“I’m already taken, I’m afraid. Stop thinking about me and concentrate on Arthur.”

“Trust me, I’m currently concentrating very hard on him. Do you think we could make it?” Merlin asked, looking for some reassurance.

“I don’t know, no one does. I guess you’ll just have to follow my example and take a risk on that one.”

“It’s just that it took me seven years to get over our last break-up. I don’t know if I could take another one.”

“Mate, you’re delusional if you actually believe you got over your last one,” Will sighed. “Things can only go uphill from here. It’s a bit like Arthur’s prototypes, you try to work out the kinks and if you can’t, you just go back to an earlier version. It’s simple really.”

“You’re awfully smug for someone in their first relationship.”

“Well, I haven’t failed yet.”

“I’ll miss you when you leave me to have babies with Gwaine. Is he going back to the hotel or is his new mansion finally finished?”

“Still not finished, that’s why he asked Arthur if he could stay here a bit longer and I’m planning on joining him.”

“What, so I’m going back alone to our flat? I’ve just been through an emotional ordeal, you shouldn’t leave me alone at a time like this.

“You could stay here as well,” Will suggested.

Merlin had considered that same idea for a while, but said, “No, I don’t think so. Best to put at least some distance between Arthur and me if we want to do this at a slow pace.”

“Don’t go too slow, you do have to get somewhere,” Will said and got himself another beer.

*

“Already packing are you?” Arthur asked the next morning.

Merlin tried to put his freshly laundered pants back in his tiny suitcase and answered, “I wasn’t planning on leaving so soon, but I have some complications in a case of mine.”

“What kind of complications? Last I heard, Agravaine is officially behind bars and I don’t know what happens to people when they fall in the hands of the magical taskforce, but they don’t usually come back.”

“Leon just called me about Agravaine, that’s great news. Actually, I wasn’t talking about this case since strangely I do have cases that don’t involve you.”

“I’m sure they are much less interesting.”

“Perhaps, but I do have to pay the bills,” Merlin reminded him. His poor flat, he hadn’t been there in ages.

Arthur looked disappointed. “Is it really that urgent?”

“Don’t laugh, but it’s actually that case I mentioned earlier, Mr. Sugar.”

“The dog?”

“Yes, it seems he is in danger yet again. Even after I put the oldest nephew away. Well I don’t think he actually went to prison, but he lost his inheritance and that’s the worst punishment for someone like him.”

“So what happened then, that Mr. Sugar is in mortal danger yet again?” Arthur asked, his expression much more amused now.

“Death threats, just like last time. Probably one of the other two nephews, you can’t accuse them of being smart.”

Merlin’s suitcase was finally ready and he was preparing himself for a goodbye when Arthur suddenly said, “I’ll go with you. Now that Will is glued to Gwaine, you could use some assistance.”

“You want to help me run an investigation,” Merlin exclaimed surprised. “Even more shocking, you want to be someone’s assistant? The great Arthur Pendragon.”

“Stop calling me that, it’s bad enough when I have to read it in magazines. And I could use a nice distraction, I don’t feel like going back to the office just yet. They don’t really need me there either, I’ve postponed our most important projects for a few months.

“This is a very serious investigation, Arthur,” Merlin said. “I don’t think Mr. Sugar would appreciate being called a nice distraction. There is  a life on the line here, are you prepared to bear that responsibility?”

“I am,” Arthur said gravely. “I think it’s about time that I find out what your world looks like. After all, you’ve been spending so much time in mine. In fact, you’ve always been a part of my world and I’ve never tried being a part of yours.”

“Are you really interested in what I do?” Merlin asked surprised.

“Mainly in the well-being of Mr. Sugar but yes, you do factor in as well.”

“So what’s next? I spend a week as an intern at your company.”

“That won’t be necessary, you were there when I started that company. There’s not much more you could find anyway. Unless you’ve developed a sudden interest in database management.”

Merlin laughed, “I’m sorry, I’m still very technologically impaired. But you’re very lucky that I have a recent job opening as my assistant. You should be glad that you were my first applicant, it’s a very coveted position.”

“Oh, I’m very interested in the position. I think we could have some fun.”

*

When Merlin first heard about his new case, he wasn’t very excited at all. But Mr. Sugar’s attorney had really made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Now that Arthur was joining him, his enthusiasm had grown substantially. This could be exactly what they needed. After all that shouting and intense conversations in the castle, it was time that they had some fun outside of it.

He did have some trouble imagining Arthur in his flat, even Morgana refused to meet him there. If she wanted to lecture him, he was summoned to one of her favourite shops. The fact that she actually visited him there when she first hired him, proved how worried she was about Arthur.

With the whole stalker story behind them, she immediately went back to her models. Merlin felt sorry for them.

When Arthur first set foot in Merlin’s flat, Merlin knew that he was holding back a string of insults. Truthfully, it wasn’t very difficult to find something to insult it with. But it was the best he could afford on a very unreliable detective income and it was the first home he made for himself. Like Mordred said, sentimentality was quite powerful.

“It’s ok, Arthur, you can let go,” he whispered. “Just say whatever you want.”

“I was just thinking how interesting it looks, it fits you,” Arthur said politely.

“So basically you’re saying that I’m a cheap, unorganized mess. Oh, and I forgot tiny.”

“Can you read minds now as well, that would be neat.”

“Nope, I’m just very good at reading you and at the moment you’re projecting disgust.”

“I’m not disgusted,” Arthur defended himself and he gave the place an another look around. “It’s actually better than I thought. I’m sure you and Will had some amazing times here.”

“We really did,” Merlin said wistfully. “Don’t ever say this to him, but I’m really going to miss him. He was an awful flatmate, but a very good friend.”

“Christ, Merlin, you’re basically holding an eulogy for him. He’s not gone yet, I’m starting to think that Gwaine will never move in that house of his. Especially after he bought the Camelot Hotel, he’ll probably end up living in the penthouse.”

“Are you planning on sleeping here? Because I have to warn you that Will’s room is a public health hazard. Not that I think this case will take long, I’ve only got two suspects.”

“Actually, my ability to follow in Will’s footsteps only goes so far. I was planning on staying in one of my properties nearby,” Arthur informed him.

“One of your properties, must be fun to a billionaire,” Merlin teased. “Wait, how many properties do you own in my neighbourhood? It’s not exactly real estate heaven over here.”

“Two luxury apartment buildings that are nearly finished, because of me you are officially living in an up-and-coming neighbourhood.”

“I’m sure my landlord will be very grateful, another opportunity to raise our rent.”

“Seeing how fond your landlord is of you, I can’t imagine it will be that big of a problem.”

“I might have exaggerated that fondness a little,” Merlin admitted hesitantly. “But to be fair, you can’t really take anything seriously that is said while you’re shouting.”

“Then I guess we should just erase the last seven years of conversations we had.”

“Why don’t we? It’s not like we said anything useful.”

Arthur nodded and said, “Ok, it’s officially erased. But that does create certain expectations about our future conversations. Not only do they have to make sense but they have to be useful as well.”

“I guess we’ll have to make an effort. Now, sit down while I make some tea and then I’ll tell you all about the boring life of Mrs. Brady."

*

Arthur seemed to find the whole detective thing a lot more entertaining when he wasn’t the subject of the investigation. He was actually a lot more useful than Will since he actually made intelligent observations.

But for all intents and purposes, this was a very easy mystery to solve. Arthur suggested they paid a visit to Mr. Sugar’s attorney anyway. ‘Research is the most important fundament of every discovery’, these were the wise words of inventor Arthur Pendragon. Who was Merlin to argue with that?

Mr. Monmouth seemed as delighted as ever to see him. He was even more pleased when he spotted Arthur, probably hoping to do business with him later.

“Mr. Pendragon,” he greeted Merlin. “I’m so relieved you were able to come back here so quickly. I realize that the past few weeks have been quite eventful for you. And your fiancé of course.”

“Oh, we are no longer engaged,” Merlin corrected him. “Arthur was so kind to offer his valuable assistance to this case. Why don’t you tell us how we can help?”

“I’m afraid there are some resemblances with what happened last time. Some terrible threats, people can be so horrible don’t you agree? Well of course, after what you went through, you know better than anyone. But I have a strange feeling about this, Mr. Pendragon. It’s easy to assume that Mrs. Brady nephews are responsible for this, but I have my doubts.”

“Then who do you suspect?” Merlin asked curiously.

“I don’t really have someone specific in mind. It’s just that I’ve gotten to know these men a bit, during all my dealings with them. I’d like to think that they wouldn’t sink this low.”

“You’d be surprised,” Merlin muttered. “I will try to keep an open mind, but I will have to focus on them first. You don’t happen to have anything with handy fingerprints this time?”

“No, they were a bit smarter this time.”

“That’s what I assumed. We’ll talk to you soon, Mr. Monmouth.”

“Of course. Mr. Pendragon,” he said and shook Merlin’s hand and said goodbye to Arthur as well.

“I’m glad you managed to find your coin after all,” Mr. Monmouth said finally.

When they were back on the street, Arthur asked him what coin he was talking about.

“Oh, I don’t know. The first time I went over there, Will was with me and he thought we were together. When I vehemently denied that, he told me I was destined to find the other side of my coin. You know, the whole two sides of the same coin thing. He’s a bit old fashioned.”

“Well I liked him and I’m glad he approves of me as a possible match for you.”

“As long as you don’t ask him for my hand.”

“Oh no, I meant what I said earlier. I am never marrying again.”

“That’s too bad, I am on the market for a new husband and Mr. Monmouth did just inform what a good match you are,” Merlin said jokingly.

“Do you mean that?” Arthur abruptly asked. “Were you really looking for a new husband?”

“Not really, I was just looking around, I guess. Searching for a suitable last name.”

“You want to change your last name?”

“No, I don’t,” Merlin said convincingly and he realized that was the truth. He never was planning on changing it. “But I was considering it because I thought that maybe it was time for me to finally move on.”

“I understand. It would be very hypocritical of me to argue with that. But I can tell you, marriage isn’t some magical solution. Speaking of solutions, I think Mr. Sugar would appreciate it if we solve this case as quickly as possible. Everyone knows how agitated Chihuahuas can be.”

“Yes, that is a very well-known fact,” Merlin said quietly. “Maybe we should visit our victim, or rather his caretaker. She should know if there is anything suspicious going on. The fact remains that if anything happens to that dog, those nephews inherit millions. That is quite a motive.”

“I’m sure my beloved uncle agrees with that, may he rot in prison. Question, are all your clients this unconventional?”

“Not many of them are animals, very few of them are ex-husbands either,” Merlin quipped brightly. “But yes, they are often quite peculiar. Some of them I wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley.”

“It must be nice to meet all those people, I don’t really meet a lot of new people.”

Merlin looked doubtful and said, “What are you talking about, look at our wedding or your famed Christmas party. It’s frightening how many people you’ve met.”

“Yes, but they are not very peculiar. And if I met them in a dark alley, they would all greet me cheerfully.”

Merlin sighed, “I understand what a burden that must be, all those people worshipping you. The struggles you’ve gone through, it’s plain horrible.”

“Mock me all you want, but life really gets boring sometimes.”

“That’s probably because you missed my interesting input.”

“From the moment I met you, you always made my life more interesting.”

“That’s odd, since you always helped me feel grounded.”

“Well, the sides of a coin can be very different,” Arthur concluded.

Merlin laughed, “Is that supposed to be you flirting? I really don’t understand how you became such a successful playboy.”

“Lots and lots of money and my impeccable good looks.”

“Add a healthy dose of self-confidence and you have the perfect Casanova,” Merlin mocked. “I have to say that we are a lot better at communicating now that we’re talking in lower voices.”

“Come on, let’s find a taxi and have some communication with our victim,” Arthur said.

*

Mr. Sugar’s caretaker was an older lady called Alice. She seemed completely harmless to Merlin and after the whole Mordred debacle, he felt even more confident in his magic.

She would never inherit anything anyway, the only people who could were the remaining two nephews. Merlin didn’t understand Mr. Monmouth’s reasonings, how many enemies could a dog possibly have? Or maybe he was as evil as Merlin first suspected, too bad his magic didn’t react to animals.

Alice had no new information for them, Mr. Monmouth was the one who receive Mr. Sugar’s ‘post.’ She just fed him and made sure he was as comfortable as possible in his luxury apartment.

Merlin was planning on looking up the life expectancy of a Chihuahua, if he wasn’t that living that much longer, he could maybe convince the Brady’s to stop their plans.

Arthur was chatting away with Alice (the man could charm anyone) and Merlin went off for a closer inspection of the place. Mainly because he was curious about the state of the real estate in this town. The apartment was huge, he discovered and probably what dog heaven looked liked. Merlin didn’t find a trace of any hidden camera’s or attempted break-in’s, but there was something suspicious about this place. And it had nothing to do with the dog.

He searched through Alice’s room and found the connection he was looking for.

A picture of Gaius.

What on earth was she doing with a picture of Gaius? It was taken a long time ago, probably over thirty years ago, Gaius’ hair was not the slightest bit unkempt. Merlin had no idea why he did it, but he knew that Mr. Monmouth never called him to help Mr. Sugar.

That old bastard had magic, most likely he was a real-life Charles Xavier. Probably a secret matchmaker as well. Merlin doubted there were even any death threats in the first place since last time he immediately handed all the evidence over to him. He just wanted to lure Merlin here and have him find this.

And Merlin would do exactly what was expected from him, make sure Gaius found out about Alice and reunite these two lovers. Problem was that if there was no investigation to be run, Arthur would probably go home and they only just started this. Whatever ‘this’ was. But he had no intention on hiding this from him either, maybe they could still have dinner or something. Dinner was friendly, right?

Merlin thanked Alice for her help, even if she wasn’t very helpful at all but it was good to be polite in these situations. He took Arthur back to his flat and explained to him what he had discovered.

“Wow, that Monmouth is something else. I can’t believe he called you back for this.”

“I know, it’s kind of sweet,” Merlin said.

“Merlin, we are talking about Gaius here. I really don’t want to think about him romancing anyone.”

“Eww, you have traumatized me, how can you even say that,” Merlin said and hit him on the shoulder.

“Ouch, I do believe that such abuse is still illegal and if it continues I will report you to the authorities. Final warning.”

Merlin responded by hitting him on the other shoulder.

“Okay, that’s it. The law does say I’m allowed to defend myself,” Arthur said and proceeded to hit Merlin’s arm lightly or so he thought.

“Ouch, I’m not a boxing ball, Arthur. This was more fun when you didn’t go to the gym three times a week.”

“Pftt, only once. The rest is the result of my magnificent genes.”

“Sure, admit it, what are you taking? The same stuff Lance Armstrong was taking.”

“Okay, I’ve had it. You’re not comparing me to some cyclist.” He pushed Merlin into the couch. “Admit it, you’re jealous of my washboard abs.”

“No, I like my body just the way it is. Do you?” Merlin teased.

Arthur gave him a once-over and replied, “It’s certainly not very unpleasant.”

“Good, that makes the fact that I wasn’t planning on keeping it hidden much longer a lot easier.”

“That does sound agreeable,” Arthur said, getting slightly breathless.

“Arthur, can I kiss you?”

“You are such an idiot, Merlin,” Arthur smiled and he climbed on top of him.

*

The last time they did this, on Arthur’s couch, they didn’t get much further than some frottage and a quick blow job once they reached his bedroom. They were too drunk to do much else. This time, they were completely sober, it was a bit disheartening. Alcohol did give you courage.

“Are you sure about this?” Arthur asked.

“Of course, I am,” Merlin assured him. “But I do think we would be a lot more comfortable in my bed. I need at least one couch that isn’t spoiled. Besides, I don’t keep my lube on the side table. Come on, Arthur, time to put that powerful body of yours to  work.”

“Oh, I will,” Arthur said and he picked Merlin up and threw him over his shoulders.

“This is not exactly what I had in mind,” Merlin said and then Arthur threw him on the bed. Merlin decided it didn’t really matter how he got here, he had reached his destination. That was the last rational thought he had.

*

When they were together, Arthur and Merlin had a very healthy sex life. One of the reasons Arthur got them a separate wing. But Merlin honestly couldn’t remember it being _this good_.

He stretched languorously in his bed, but looked up when he didn’t feel any sign of Arthur next to him. Oh god, he didn’t do a runner again?

Merlin put on his pants and went to the living room where he found Arthur busy cooking breakfast. He breathed a very quiet sigh of relief and asked, “What are you doing in my kitchen?”

“Oh, this is supposed to be a kitchen, it looks more like a  rubbish dump to me. It took me ten minutes to find anything edible in here. I just hope these eggs were bought sometime in the last three months.”

“Well, I was gone for several weeks, not much time to do some shopping,” Merlin confessed.

“Please, stop fooling yourself. You are horrible at feeding yourself. This is a disaster.”

“I’m sorry for the dreadful breakfast, but perhaps the company can make up for some things.”

“The company makes up for a lot of the surroundings.”

He kissed Merlin and soon enough things were heating up so much that Merlin was starting to wonder how stable his kitchen table was.

But Arthur pulled away and said, “However tempting this is, we really have something else we need to do first.”

“I don’t care about breakfast, Arthur.”

He tried to go back to kissing him but Arthur resisted.

“We need to talk, Merlin. About everything. We can’t just shag and pretend nothing ever happened between us.”

“I know,” Merlin sighed. “It was just fun pretending for a while that we are two men who fancied each other without all that extra baggage.”

“Not all of that baggage is bad, you know.”

“I know, there are many good years in the baggage, it just seems when we start talking about it, we only seem to be able to focus on that bad year. The one where we broke up.”

“Trust me, Merlin, there is nothing I want more than fucking you over this kitchen table but I would like to repeat this action many times over lots of other tables. We need to talk first, if we want to do that.”

“Okay, let’s do this. But put a shirt on first, you’re very distracting.”

*

They sat down and stared at each other.

“Um, should I start talking,” Merlin asked hesitantly. “Or would you prefer to say something first?”

“Why don’t you start,” Arthur suggested. “You’re good at talking about your emotions, I don’t think I’ve finished processing all of mine.”

“Maybe it would be a good idea to start at the beginning, remember all that shit I said earlier about our first break-up. It was wrong of me to bring that all up again. I mean that was ages ago, we were only stupid teenagers. But it was the first time I realized that maybe we weren’t going to stay together for the rest of our lives. It really scared me, part of me was always a bit scared that you were going to get bored with me eventually. I mean you were this self-made billionaire, at the top of the business world and what did I have? I finished university but I didn’t really do anything. I was more a trophy husband than anything else.”

Arthur opened his mouth, probably wanting to deny that statement but Merlin shushed him and said, “You’ll get your turn later, and I won’t interrupt you either.”

“I guess that’s when it started, when I turned 24. That’s when it hit me, everyone was busy building their lives, except me. I was feeling pretty useless in that castle. Throwing dinners for your business partners, hosting the Christmas party which I was horrible at. Morgana had to save my arse every year. And you were always working, always. I understand of course why you had to work so hard. You can’t just build such an empire and expect it to stand on its own immediately but I felt so lonely.

Then I got the idea to become a magical detective and you actually forbade me to do it, which had the opposite effect on me of course. From then on, everything just spiralled, the whole Mary business, me being in the hospital. I don’t know, we were just fighting all the time and then one day it just got too much for me and I left. I thought I needed to be alone for a while, work on myself before we could fix things between us. But it was like you didn’t care anymore. The day after I left, you were photographed having dinner with some business partners and you looked as cheerful as ever.”

Merlin swallowed and continued, “Only a week later, I got served divorce papers. It took a month but I signed them when I saw you in the papers with that pretty blonde. But what I didn’t tell you earlier is that I came to the castle first, where I saw you with her and you were smiling and you looked so happy that I figured it was too late. You moved on, like you did the first time you didn’t want me anymore.”

They were silent for a while and then it seemed Arthur had finished processing.

He looked solemn and said, “There has never been one moment where I didn’t want you in my life. I don’t even remember falling in love with you, it’s like it’s just always been that way. Like it was my destiny or something, I know it sounds quite cheesy. But then I turned seventeen and Gwaine and Will were always talking about all the girls they pulled and part of me was curious what it would be like. But I would never cheat on you, Merlin, never. So I broke up with you, the moment I did I regretted it immensely. But you were so mad at me.. Then Jessica asked me out and I thought ‘fuck it, I’ve lost Merlin anyway.’

He drank some tea and gathered some courage to continue talking, “When I found about Gwaine, I realised there was a chance I lost you for good. So after the unfortunate kitchen incident, I begged you for forgiveness. But you know me, I felt I had to compensate somehow and since I am a Pendragon I used the best way I knew, money. The castle, all kinds of presents, it’s ridiculous because I know you don’t care about the money. You didn’t want a penny from me after our divorce even when I offered to at least buy you a decent house.

I was just so determined to keep you happy and we were happy for several years. But then you were laying there in a coma and my dad finally told me about my mother, I grew even more determined to keep you safe. And that is when I went overboard. You were right earlier, I was suffocating you. The last thing I wanted was you chasing after dangerous criminals so I did everything I could to sabotage your detective agency until we did nothing else but fight and then you suddenly left. I was so angry, so fucking angry, you have no idea.

Part of me wanted to come to that hotel and take you home immediately but a larger part of me wanted to punish you. Make you realize that you needed me to take care of you, which I realize sounds controlling, but I needed to be in control. So I pretended everything was fine, like I didn’t even miss you. I did such a good job that even Morgana believed me. She dared me to send the divorce papers and I did. Because I wanted to prove to her that I didn’t need you. That woman you saw me with, she was a daughter of a business partner of mine and she kept flirting with me and the shitty thing is I never really stopped her, but I swear to you that I never touched her. I only signed the divorce papers because I figured that’s what _you_ wanted. That you were tired of me and wanted to move on but I was determined to beat you there and that’s how I ended up marrying Vivian after two months of dating.”

They both sat there in silence, staring at each other again and it was Merlin who broke the silence first.

“So I think this officially means that we are both a tad fucked up but we’re not completely hopeless. We did manage to have a functional relationship for several years. We can get that back,” he said confidently.

“I really hope so, because last night was one of the best nights of my life and I really, really don’t want to parted from you any longer.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Darcy, I’m planning on being a very huge presence in your life. In fact, I might be a bit controlling, like I am scheduling a very long holiday for you. I’m envisioning Paris, Rome, Amsterdam. Any place without too much sun, I burn very easily. I’m sure the police is competent enough to cover my absence.”

“My company is in good hands as well,” Arthur said and then added carefully, “I don’t want to sound too negative, but there are still things we need to work out.”

“And we will, but not here. It’s too easy to fall in old patterns and as much as I love our dear friends, we need to sort this out on our own.”

“Are we even going to say goodbye?”

“Well, I do have to make a quick stop to the castle, to make sure Gaius is reunited with his great love. Wouldn’t want to disappoint Mr. Monmouth, I’m so tired of being a disappointment.”

“Morgana will be so smug, she essentially put us back together.”

“I think we did all the hard work, which reminds me that she still hasn’t paid me for all my detective work.”

“She probably figures I’m your reward.”

“You’re a very nice reward, but let’s face the facts, I really need that new couch.”


	10. Epilogue

This was definitely not the first time Gwen planned a wedding, but she seemed exceedingly nervous for this one. When Will made a joke about the bridal cake, she actually snapped at him. Gwen never snapped at people, Merlin decided this was an excellent time to put on his suit.

Morgana hadn’t been as kind this time, Merlin laughed when he saw the blue suit. He was pretty sure that Arthur would be wearing red. Plus, she still refused to pay Merlin for his hard detective work. It was fun having a sister-in-law again.

He went back to the kitchen since Arthur just texted him that it would take at least fifteen minutes before he could make it back here. As it turned out, his company could survive without him for exactly three months and then the place started collapsing without Arthur’s strong shoulders. Hmm, his very strong shoulders.

Elena was in the kitchen as well, trying to squeeze in some work.

“Working on someone’s wedding day is quite rude, you know,” Merlin said to her.

“Ha, tell that to your boyfriend. Besides, this won’t take much longer. lf you ever run an investigation where you encounter someone who dresses up exclusively as Robin Hood, you’re dealing with my client.”

“What does he do exactly?” Merlin inquired.

“He steals from the rich to help the poor. Casually forgetting that his own parents are millionaires.”

“Rich people, I will never understand them.”

“That must make your relationship with Arthur quite difficult.”

“It’s a struggle each and every day. The sex makes it a lot easier,” he grinned, remembering last night.

“I bet it does. But it’s nice to see you so happy again. In fact it seems this place has turned into a one huge love fest, especially with our soon-to-be newlyweds. I feel a bit left out.”

“Don’t worry you will find your prince charming one day or a nice substitute like I did.”

“Is this where all the cool kids hang out?” Arthur asked.

“Arthur, I thought you got held up in the office,” Merlin said surprised and jumped up to give him a kiss.

“I was but Freya assured me that the place would not go up in flames without my presence. I am starting to really like this delegating thing.”

“Me too, it leaves you with enough time to be my assistant. Speaking of time, I think we should go the garden. Gwen will lynch us if we miss the start of the wedding. Especially considering our pivotal part in it.”

Gwen glared a little at them when they made their entrance and quite understandable since the groom was already standing at the altar. Merlin felt he was neglecting his best man duties and quickly made his way over there.

“Congratulations, your suit looks way better than mine,” he said cheerfully.

“Thank you,” Gaius said, sounding a bit nervous.

“I still can’t believe that you’re getting married and so quickly.”

“It is no use to wait with these things at my age.”

“You’re not that old, Gaius,” Merlin pointed out.  “And before you’re married off, I just wanted to say thank you. For everything you’ve done for me, I realise it’s not quite a coincidence that you broke up with Alice when I fell in your care.”

“I’m just relieved that you’ve finally found happiness.”

“We both have, we are some lucky bastards for finding Alice and Arthur.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing you standing up here again.”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to settle for Will and Gwaine. The next time Arthur and I are standing in front of an altar, we will probably your age. Two grumpy men in love, nagging each other about the decorations. Sounds pretty wonderful to me,” he smiled and looked at Arthur who was smiling back at him. They may not be married, but they were definitely in their honeymoon period.

Whatever cases he might solve in the future, nothing would ever trump this one.


End file.
